Twilight's Last Gleaming
by Legend Maker
Summary: July 4th, 1776. America is born. July 4th, 200X. If the Teen Titans can't stop it, AMERICA DIES.
1. Infamy

**_Twilight's Last Gleaming_**

_Opening Note: While accessible to new readers, this takes place in a fanon (so alternate) universe derived from multiple writings, so there WILL be original characters. This will also let me do a few minor tweaks on the DC Comics universe. Nothing ultra-huge, but it's there. Just so you know._

Prologue: Infamy

Or

Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You...

As silent as the creature whose species defined everything about it and the world, it drifted through the clouds. It seemed terrifying that something could move so quietly and leave so little a trace of its presence behind, but the people within knew much of fear.

The figure sitting on the throne, carved from purest gold and obsidian, decorated with priceless emeralds, certainly knew it well. And of its consequences. And how much it played in the future of the world.

"We will be in range within the hour, master." Spoke a nameless minion, clad in the same colors of auric and verdigris.

"Good." Replied the figure, the faintest trace of an accent underpinning his words. "Is everything prepared?"

"Yes sir. They will stand no chance."

"I would prefer you think of them as standing quite a chance, lest arrogance be your undoing." The figure, clearly master of all he surveyed, replied tersely.

"F-f-forgive me master! I will make sure…!"

"Be gone. I am in no mood for sniveling." The master said, and the minion made well his escape. His message would be received as wished.

The sun was just starting to begin its ascent. Not that the figure could have known that. Discounting the sealed room that served as his throne room, his eyes were as white as breast milk, the sight torn from them long ago. But he didn't need it.

"The irony." He commented to himself. "That the end should fall on this date. Then again, in a way it is quite deserving. The country has had retribution for its betrayal a long time coming. Not to mention the many sins other voices would surely heap on it. As little as that matters: in the end all will share their fate. But the beginning of the end shall erupt here. By the dawn's early light, as it were."

A low chuckle sounded across the room, and then the figure spoke no more, preparing for the glorious blood and fire, an infinity greater then the kind that birthed the country he was heading towards…

_As we drift away from this grim omen…_

_And go rapidly across the waters as the sun rises higher in the sky…_

_Until we come to the shining building, the T-shaped structure of glass and steel, shining brightly in the sunlight on this lovely morning of July 4__th._

_And as we look through the window, into a kitchen, where a colorfully dressed figure sat…_

Albeit not as colorful as he would usually be, as Robin was not wearing his cape or mask and was wearing a more casual shirt over his costume, though his green leggings and armored boots were clearly visible. After much experimentation on just how much he needed to wear the costume around the Tower, Robin had settled on this: he looked normal enough and could be battle ready within five seconds.

The universe known to many as DC has seen many incarnations with many changes between them. In this universe we view now though, this is the third Robin, Tim Drake: by a quirk of time he leads the Titans rather then his older brother in arms, Dick Grayson. Though at the moment, he looked like any teenager, as he sipped his coffee and read the morning newspaper, enjoying the quiet.

A touch TOO quiet, now that he thought of it. Even with Beast Boy and the generally noisier Titans preferring later rising hours, surely there would have been more background noise then Robin was hearing.

Then again, maybe he was just letting his mind play tricks on him, as he turned the newspaper page and continue reading, sipping once more from his coffee…

And then he heard the thud.

Robin arched an eyebrow, and glanced over at the darker main room where the thud had come from. He suddenly had the resigned feeling that his peaceful time was over.

Well, if he didn't bite they'd just keep escalating, so no sense delaying the evitable, as Robin got up and headed over, slight caution in his movements, just in case they did something unexpec-

"SURPRISE!"

In the end, even Robin was caught off guard, as the lights flared on…revealing his fellow Titans, all of them, smiling and holding their arms out, as streamers and confetti launched over and around a banner that read HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBIN.

"…wha?" Robin said.

"Ah come on Fearless, you didn't think we'd do nothing, did you?" Victor "Cyborg" Stone laughed as he clapped an arm around Robin. "I know you tend to prefer low-key, but hey, Cyborg doesn't DO LOW-KEY!"

Robin knew that, if only by the proof of the piles of presents and enormous person-sized birthday cake that the Titans were around. And they looked delighted to be celebrating, even the more stoic and reserved members.

He hated to burst their bubble, but he believed honesty was the best policy.

"Uh guys…it's not my birthday."

"Oh do not be silly Tim! You need not act your modesty in such a dishonest matter!" Chirped Starfire, his ever ebullient alien girlfriend.

"I'm not being modest. It's really not. My birthday's on the 19th, not the 4th."

"Oh come on Robin, don't be a spoilsport!" Gar "Beast Boy" Logan said as he eagerly bounded around as a golden retriever. Somehow, he kept the casual clothes he was wearing on his green hide.

"We checked the computer, it had this listed as your birthday. And seeing how we never got around to celebrating any of them so far, you deserve it." Raven said.

"Hell, I checked myself." Came another voice, and Robin glanced over to the speaker. Dressed in white jeans and leather jacket with a blue shirt, white boots, and blue headband tied under a towering mass of impossibly vertical and sculpted hair, Noel "Savior" Collins certainly didn't sound like he was lying. And since Noel tended to be somewhat of a stick in the mud, that confirmed to Robin that something was a touch off.

"Yeah, come on! Party! Party! And cake! I call firsties!" Came another male voice, as New member No 2, Robert "Gauntlet" Candide, a casually dressed teenager with blonde hair who could sometimes express enough exuberance to leave Starfire and Beast Boy in the dust (a notable task), jumped over to the giant cake as his namesake artifact, an ancient device from a long forgotten society roughly translated as the Old Ones, expanded over his arm and projected a yellow-tinged energy as he tried to slice himself a giant piece.

Only to find Savior's own energy talent, the white nervous system based 'Shimmer' (as he called it), blocking his way.

"Hold it grabbie. I'm not having you mess up Tara and Sophie's hard work before we get this straight." Noel said. Gauntlet blinked, and then looked at the two, first at the blonde, waifish Tara "Terra" Markov, in many worlds a heartless traitor or a manipulated puppet, but here a Titan, ironically by Gauntlet's own intervention (and great luck all things considered) and then at her almost exact opposite, the brown haired and pleasantly plump and quite proud of it Sophie Matthews, who was the last of the current Titan roster to join under the name of Morgue (having been before then the girlfriend of the previous new member, the alien Scalpel, a renegade member of the war-happy alien race called the Blacktrinians in Earth English). Terra shrugged her shoulders, while Sophie made a mock mad face and did a throat slashing motion, suggesting a gruesome fate for Gauntlet if he touched her cake. Scalpel, aka Nigel Hastings (the approximation of his gibberish Blacktrinian name, Nigicalnack Hastionfarlock), the last male member to join the Titans since their forming several years ago, waved his three fingered (two fingers and a thumb) metal-clawed hand (one of his many stand out traits: his feet were similarly designed. Along with the fact his skin was light gray, his short hair was an ultramarine blue, his ears were elongated like an elf, his top front primary teeth were fused into a double-sized fang, and his eyes' cornea's were pitch black, with the pupils the same ultramarine as his hair. As well as his battle costume/casual wear being an outfit that looked like a zoot suit with a dark cape attached to his shoulders, a darkness that contrasted with his outfit being colored a striking red. Nigel Hastings always stood out in a crowd) at Rob, as if he was delighted that Rob would be denied cake before him. Rob gulped, and the Gauntlet retracted back to its small ring form.

"Now, Tim…it's not your birthday?" Savior asked.

"No."

"…But it says on the computer."

"What?" Robin said, as he headed over to the Titans' main computer and turned it on, as the nine other Titans waited to see who was telling the truth.

Robin called up the calendar feature, and there it was on the 4th: Robin's Birthday.

"Dude, how do you forget your own birthday?" Beast Boy joked. "What, has Red-X pulled a…reverse…Robin…X…thing on us?" The changeling said, losing track of the joke in mid-sentence.

"But it's NOT my birthday guys. But don't worry, I see why you made that error." Robin said as he turned around. "Remember the last time Gizmo tried to hack us? He messed up a few things. I thought Victor and I had fixed them all, but apparently, we missed one." Robin said, as he reached around himself and pressed a key, calling up July 19th on the program…which was clearly labeled Independence Day.

"The damage caused the dates to get switched." Noel said, as he smacked his forehead with his palm.

"And none of you bothered to confirm. Shame, shame. I taught you people better." Robin mock-chastised.

"Oops." Terra said, shrugging her shoulders.

"All the same, thank you guys. It's not needed…or correct, but appreciated. And hey, we can still do some celebrating."

"That's RIGHT! IT'S STILL INDEPENDENCE DAY! YAHOO! GO AMERICA!" Beast Boy as he ran around as a donkey.

"Nice subtle hint there." Noel commented as he sat down in a nearby chair as Beast Boy pranced by.

"Would you really prefer me dancing around as an elephant Noel?"

"Point well taken." Noel said, as he opened a coke and began drinking. "Politics aside, Happy Independence Day guys."

"YEAH! WE RULE!" Cyborg declared…revealing that his whole body, front and back, was suddenly covered in a colorfully (and not exactly pristine) painted replica of the Star and Stripes.

"That was not there a moment ago." Robin commented wryly.

"Heh, well…I actually spent hours on it last night, covered it with a holopin. When we were done celebrating I was gonna head out and get some more partying in around the town…one advantage of being mostly machine: you don't sweat." Cyborg said.

"How on earth did you paint your own back?" Noel commented, looking at Cyborg's artwork.

Cyborg promptly removed his own right forearm, which crawled across the table, picked up one of Robin's presents, and spun it on its finger.

"Impressive…though that really is a waste of your abilities, Vic."

"Yeah yeah!" Cyborg replied, blowing Noel off as he re-attached his arm. "I think you and Robin do plenty of wasting of your own mental efforts. Like your little game to see who can hide hidden tools on yourselves in increasingly more ridiculous places, but hey, I keep that to myself! Say Tim, managed to work out a convenient way to conceal something behind your eyeball yet?" Cyborg asked, trying to tease Robin for his ultra-grim assessments of capture and the precautions he took.

"Working on it." Robin replied calmly. Cyborg saw his joke was wrecked and moved on.

"But hell, I don't need to go out! We can celebrate here! Barbecue! Giant racks of ribs! Chickens for everyone! Giant, juicy hamburgers! And of course, tofu." Cyborg said, cutting Beast Boy off just as he opened his mouth to protest, leaving the animal master's jaw hanging comically open. "America, freedom of choice!"

"So long as you're a white male age 18 to 49." Raven commented to herself. Noel glanced at her. She returned the look. "Oh come on, normally that'd be coming out of your mouth."

"Perhaps, but not today. Come on Raven, just relax a bit. I know you can. I've seen you." Noel said, his comment tinged with a touch too much innuendo for Raven's taste, as she smacked him with a black energy encased cushion.

"Well, if it is not yet your day of birth, I suppose we can just put the presents away for later." Starfire said. Robin looked at the many boxes and shook his head.

"This is a lot of stuff guys. I hope you got at least some practical items."

"Oh come on, what fun is that?" Cyborg said. "Besides, you pretty much own everything that's practical already."

"Where did you get the money for this?"

"We hid it in the Birdarang budget." Cyborg said, and winked. Robin stared, and then couldn't help but chuckle: he knew well himself how one could hide such things in such unique inventories.

"Anyway, we can put it away later. Except maybe this. It's really a microwave to replace the one Victor broke. I figured if we got it for you we could sneak around punishment for that." Beast Boy said.

"Hey man, I didn't break the microwave! I was just trying to make sure it popped my corn correctly!" Cyborg protested.

"Which you, since you could not for some reason properly set the timer for, resorted to attempt by jamming said timer through some cyber-robotic trick, which is fine except you failed to unjam it, which lead to an explosion and very unpleasant smells pervading the kitchen for several days." Raven commented.

"Hey Rae, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If Ben Franklin hadn't flown a kite in a storm, who would have discovered electricity?"

"Someone else, who did not kill himself trying to make his discoveries." Savior commented. "Risk is all fine and good, but unnecessary risk, well, Franklin's lucky he's an American myth and not a cautionary tale."

"Hey Noel, would you have mocked the people who went out to see Franklin's oyster eating horse?" Cyborg commented.

"No, I probably would have fallen for that myself. Franklin, he was one of a kind."

"My Earth history is a touch rusty." Scalpel said, as he held his own can of soda in his claws: you'd expect the nasty looking appendages to crush the can, but Nigel, despite his immense strength (his species was, like Starfire, naturally superstrong, though Nigel traded off the fact that he was actually stronger in Starfire with being immensely dense, which made him sink like a stone in water), handled the can with ease. After all, he had been a doctor. "Just who was declaring the independence here?"

"The United States. Going on about 230 or so years now." Terra said. "Back then, we were a British colony, but the Brits were a bunch of morons who thought being nice to CANADIA was better, so the 13 original colonies united and declared themselves independent, and when the British came to take us back we kicked their rear ends, and now we're the most powerful country in the world, yay!" Terra said, as she raised her own soda can.

"With all the problems and history that comes with it." Sophie commented.

"Eh, omelet, eggs." Terra replied.

"Yes, it was a rather acrimonious situation, Friend Nigel." Starfire said. "And quite strange! I must tell you of the Boston Party of Tea. If I could remember it better…"

"Allow me Star." Rob said. "You see, a bunch of colonists were angry about taxes on tea. Mind you, it was a small tax. But they were angry because they didn't get to vote on it. Because of the tax, they boycotted the tea. Being cranky due to caffeine withdrawal, a bunch of guys decided to dress up like Indians and dump the tea in the harbor. They figured that if they couldn't have the tea, nobody could."

"…so the people figured…the best way to express their anger with their government…was not immediate armed rebellion…but to dress up as an indigenous people…and throw a drink mix away?" Scalpel queried, the look on his face clearly indicating he found the whole thing absurd..

"Hey, can't always get it right the first time. They tried making a point by dressing up as Indians and throwing tea into the harbor, didn't work. Then as Dave Barry said they tried dressing up as tea and throwing Indians into the harbor and then dressing up as a harbor and throwing tea into Indians…" Rob joked.

"Oh? The level of success of such efforts must have been truly low. I never saw such the slightest mention of them in my studies, even on the Pedia of Wiki." Starfire commented.

"Yeah, well, history's weird." Gar said as he sat down with the group. "But that's what happened, and despite losing a lot of battles, we held in there and kicked their limey asses off the continent for good! Unless you count Canadia, which nobody does!" Gar said, clearly joking.

"You know, remembering this country's independence should be more then just trumpeting how great we are. People died to get it, and died to protect it. Some day we might get called upon to do it again." Sophie said.

"And we'll win! Because we always do!" Beast Boy declared, fully in the grip of his parodic nationalism. "Because we won before! Because that's how awesome they were! The British Empire was the most powerful country on Earth, and we still kicked 'em out, with sheer American grit and determination!"

"And French aid." Robin added.

"Psht! Like we needed it. THE BRITISH SUCK!" Beast Boy crowed.

And then the roar blasted through the room as the entire building shook, and the Titans found themselves tossed down and around like they were inside a can of peas. Furniture overturned, presents went everywhere, and more then a few soda cans exploded and sprayed their carbonated contents everywhere. However, the giant cake remained upright. Now that's good baking.

And then, silent, the room abruptly turned into a disaster zone.

A pause.

And then Beast Boy peeked up over a table.

"Eep, they heard me."

* * *

_**Legend Maker Presents:**_

_**With contributions from Jedi-And, Chaltab, Prisionero, and Bobcat**_

_**Independence…at the End of Days.**_

_**TWILIGHT'S LAST GLEAMING**_

"_**Ordo…Ab Chao."**_

* * *


	2. Give Me Liberty

_What Does Every Teenage Superhero Do On The Weekend? They Hang Out With The Teen Titans!_

**_ROBIN_**

_Tim Drake. Teenage wunderkind and scion of the Bat. Master of combat, armed with the greatest in defensive weaponry, and of a mind of great power and honed to a fine edge. Leader, commander, and without fear._

_**STARFIRE **_

_Kory Anders (Koriand'r) Alien princess and grand warrior, with innate alien powers enhanced to even greater limits by cruel experiments. Superhumanly strong, as graceful and skilled as the wind, and commander of powerful destructive energies. Kind. Gentle. Fierce. Unrelenting._

**_CYBORG_**

_Victor Stone. Human heart and soul wrapped in the greatest might of machines. Armed to the teeth, noble to the core, bad to the bone._

_**BEAST BOY**_

_Garfield 'Gar' Logan. Smiling jokester who wields the power of the kingdom of animals. A hundred lines, a million forms, a single cause: peace and justice for ALL living things._

_**RAVEN**_

_Born of evil, raised in void, triumphed over both by the power of good. Great innate dark powers, master sorceress. A calm that commands a storm beyond comprehension._

_**TERRA**_

_Tara Markov. In one world a psychotic traitor, in another a manipulated puppet stripped of flesh and power. Here, a fortunate child who avoided and raised herself above both. Commands the very earth itself, to save or to annihilate._

_What Does Every Teenage Powered OC Want To Do? They Want To Join The Teen Titans!_

_…well, that or Hogwarts. Maybe X-Men Evolution too. Perhaps Naruto…MOVING ON._

_**SAVIOR**_

_Noel Collins. The first to join the team. Seeks to raise himself above his and all human failing, for better or for worse. Wields the Shimmer, a unique energy that transforms him into a one man army, with incredible strategic talent to utilize it to its fullest. Believes in mercy and righteousness, but also believes in unflinching response if required. Not someone you'd want to hang out with. Someone you'd always want watching your back. Yes, his name is pretentious. He's heard it before._

_**GAUNTLET**_

_Robert Candide. The second to join the team. Some dude with a thing on his arm. It gives him powers and stuff. And he's funny. And he knows he's in a comic. Wait, this isn't a comic…_

_**SCALPEL**_

_Nigel Hastings (Nigicalnack Hastionfarlock). The third to join the team. Alien of a war-driven species. Rejected and hunted by his kind for growing sick of war. Rejected and hunted by most humans in turn for being what he is. Soldiers on regardless, wielding his immense strength, clawed hands and feet, and arsenal of bladed weapons commanded by a devastating fighting style in a quest to find an answer. Or oblivion. Whichever comes first…_

_**MORGUE**_

_Sophie Matthews. The last to join the team. A bystander turned vigilante and a strange sight in a world of them: a rounded body instead of limbs of stick or ridiculous slabs of muscle. Underestimated and mocked. High skill with firearms and unique mutative ability to transform herself and anything she touches into a swarm of deadly bats oft shows the folly of such mockery. The world's first plus sized superheroine, and proud of it. Judge a book by its cover at your own risk._

_They are the Teen Titans._

_And on this day, their blood may refresh the tree of liberty…_

* * *

Robin, as per usual, was the first to his feet.

"What the hell just hit us, is Slade trying to undermine the ground beneath our tower again?" Cyborg yelled as he himself got up, the rest of his fellows doing likewise.

"WARNING. Tower structure compromised. Damage on 12th, 11th, 9th, and 7th levels." The computer intoned, as Robin, on instinct, reached into a pouch on his utility belt and pressed his mask to his face.

"Direction and type of offense!" Robin ordered.

"Offense registered from east side of Tower. Analysis suggests cloaked missile impacts." The computer told him. Robin's eyes narrowed. Missiles weren't uncommon, but the kind of cloaking technology their systems couldn't penetrate…

"That would explain why our scanners didn't pick them up. What launched the missiles?" Robin enquired.

"Um, Robin?" Beast Boy said, and the teen wonder turned around as the changeling pointed at the window.

"I'd say that's a pretty strong suspect." Savior commented, as Robin followed the point.

And saw it in the distance, emerging from the clouds.

Just for a moment, his mouth went dry.

But just for a moment.

"Oh damn." Robin said as he stalked over to the window, as it continued to emerge. At first glance, it kind of looked like an aircraft carrier. If an aircraft carrier had been redesigned to work as a plane. And then made about six times bigger. And then given a new paintjob that consisted primarily of dark greens and alternating muted and shining golds.

And then had another makeover, one that Robin didn't need the high-powered electro-binoculars he had pulled out and was peering through to see. Though those helped him see the many decorative patterns all over the massive sky-ship that were all in the style of scales. And the various kinds of snakes plastered all over the ship: snake-shaped guns and launchers, giant twin upright snake statues at the front of the even more massive airship that Robin was sure concealed powerful energy weapons (after dealing with so many gimmicky villains, you got a feel for what was decorative and what was concealing something), and snake pictures and patterns traced there was space.

But he didn't need them to see how the back of the ship with the main command towers was designed to look like a giant cobra crest.

"What…who the hell is that?" Terra said, her voice quavering a bit. The Titans had dealt with supervehicles a time or two, but this was the first time one had quite literally popped up in their backyard.

"Kobra." Robin replied.

"COBRA? What the hell! Is Control Freak attacking us with 80's cartoons now?" Cyborg exploded.

"No, if it was him attacking us, he'd use the Decepticons." Beast Boy commented, forever throwing jokes to mask the low throb of fear he always felt in a new and unexpected situation.

"What?"

"Hey, I know how he thinks, remember?"

"Crap, Gar's right. And I wanted to meet Optimus Prime!" Gauntlet whined.

"He's an Autobot!"

"Guys, not now." Robin said tersely, though it was clear his tension mainly derived from what he was seeing in front of him rather then the pop culture being tossed about behind him. "Not Cobra. Kobra. With a K. It's a deadly terrorist cult. It's fought with just about everybody in the business over the past few decades." Robin said.

"The world has a deadly terrorist cult called Kobra?" Sophie asked, perhaps a touch surprised at possible allusions to lack of originality.

"Yeah. I'll actually not fault you for not knowing them, it seems like a new one springs up every week." Robin said, as the ship drew ever closer.

"Wait, why is this Kobra attacking us? What have we done to offend it?" Starfire asked.

"Who knows? They're a bunch of deadly lunatics trying to usher in an age of chaos or destruction or turmoil or chaotic destructive turmoil…who needs logic when you have fanaticism?" Robin said.

"Nuts. It has to be Kobra. Cobra would've been easy! You ever SEEN G.I Joe? A bunch of morons, they are!" Gauntlet commented.

"We don't get that luxury." Robin replied, his voice grim.

"Are they going to attack us again?" Raven asked calmly.

"No. And I doubt we've taken their full measure. I just did a preliminary scan: the firepower that thing likely holds could have reduced our home to a smoking crater before we could blink. I think those missiles were just them knocking on our door." Cyborg said, taking his hand from the mechanical side of his head as he spoke.

"Something's falling from the bottom of their ship!" Terra said, pointing.

"I see it." Robin replied, putting the binoculars to his eyes again and scanning in, as he watched several very large plastic-looking orbs hit the water.

And crack open, disgorging high-tech black and green motorboats, clearly armed and manned by men dressed in green and gold: a green body suit with a near full face hood (the mouth was exposed) with golden scale armor and various kinds of green cloth tied around their shoulders and waists (it varied). The boats looked on the very edge of high-tech: Sonny and Rico WISHED they'd had that kind of vehicle to chase drug dealers around Miami waters, and that included the recent movie.

"They're dropping boats in the water." Robin said.

"Not just that." Savior said, gesturing up. Robin looked…and saw the first blooms of green as the parachutes opened, even as more tiny figures leapt from the bow of the massive airship.

"Paratroopers." Robin said.

"Holy crap it's a full scale invasion." Morgue said.

"What on Earth could possibly make them want to expend this kind of effort?" Savior said.

"Maybe they think the Justice League has a silent T?" Rob suggested. Savior gave Rob a withering glare. "Hey, you have an idea, go ahead and say it!"

"Doesn't matter. They're here, and if we don't do something fast they're gonna Red Dawn our happy home. What're the orders, Fearless?" Cyborg said.

Robin took one last look at the encroaching threat: the men drifting down, the boats roaring around, and the massive airship itself…

And then, like a switch, Robin buried all concern and fear and brought to bear what had allowed him and his team to survive everything from master assassins to pie-obsessed witches.

"All right." Robin said firmly as he turned and scanned everyone. Of the nine, only Savior, Raven, and Scalpel were dressed for combat, though Cyborg didn't count as he rarely wore clothes (though that ridiculous American flag covering almost seemed to count as a costume), Gauntlet wore casual clothes all the time when working, and Robin could see Beast Boy's purple and black costume peeking out under his khaki's and overlarge Hawaiian shirt. Terra, Morgue, and Starfire, however, were in casual outfits, and considering what was coming that simply wouldn't do.

"Star, Terra, Morgue, get dressed for combat, double time, gogogo!" Robin ordered, and the three scrambled off. Scalpel went with his girlfriend, and Robin was about to call him back, then decided it would probably be best if Nigel looked after his rookie love interest: she'd been well trained but hadn't yet acquired a lot of real life experience. "Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven, Savior, Gauntlet, get out there! Try and do whatever you can to delay or repel the invaders, I'll get you backup ASAP! Split up if you have to but use extreme caution if you do! Now go, quickly! And remain in constant communication!" Robin ordered, as he pulled off his shirt to expose his red combat vest.

"Aye aye Captain." Gauntlet replied, as his namesake artifact began to expand, erupting from the metal ring on his finger to cover his whole right arm in strange high-tech armor, while Cyborg just nodded and Savior saluted, as the group of five broke for the nearby hallway in a rapid walk. "Quick! The British are coming! The British are coming!"

"Knock it off…!" Savior retorted as the group vanished.

"TOWER! RED ALERT! FULL LOCKDOWN! MAXIMUM DEFENSES! NOW!" Robin sprinted to the kitchen, grabbing up his cape and snapping it on, as he ran on past the kitchen, even as plates of heavily armored metal began slamming themselves down over the windows of the Tower and other defensive measures armed and closed, gradually turning the building into a formidable fortress. With that done, Robin ran on. First he had to send a distress signal (this was looking like a Big One and he who didn't seek aid in such a case, whether he got it or not, was a fool), then he had to stuff his belt with weapons, and then…repel an army of fanatical terrorists?

Well, at least they weren't ruining his birthday.

"Guys, I have an idea. I'm heading down to the garage. Can you cover for me for a touch?" Cyborg said as the five hurried rapidly down the hallway.

"Just make sure it's a touch." Noel replied.

"Hey man, I cannot tell a lie." Cyborg said. "B, I could use your help, come on!"

"With ya Cy!" Beast Boy said, stumbling as he tried to run and pull off his casual pants without removing his shoes as he followed Cyborg into a nearby elevator.

"I can't help but noticing we keep losing assistance. What does your tactical brain say when it comes to such lesser numbers Noel?" Rob asked, partly needling and partly serious.

"Cross your fingers and hope we don't up as a rallying cry for later battles built on our martyrdom." Savior replied as the three turned and headed down another hallway, dim emergency lights the only illumination with the tower windows in front of them sealed.

"Really? You mean there's a chance I could actually get Batman to yell 'Spoon'?"

"Yeah, I'm sure he'd do that for you."

"Wow, I'm almost tempted to get clobbered!"

"Yeah yeah, tonight we dine in hell, remember the goddamn Alamo." Savior snarked as he broke into a run. "Forget this! We need out! Raven, handle the window!" Savior yelled as he broke into a run, pulling out his communicator and pressing a button, as the single panel of the barrier metal opened up before him, even as Raven made a hand signal.

"_Corruptis Brittalis."_ She whispered, and a dark mist streamed from her hand and zipped past Noel, striking the ultra-dense plastic compound the Titans used for their windows and abruptly making it as brittle as candy glass.

Which helped as Savior leapt forward and crashed through it, gummy shards of the material raining past him as he fell the four stories to the ground, the Shimmer breaking his fall as he landed.

"Can't disappoint your fans, huh?" Gauntlet said as he landed beside him.

"I have fans?" Savior replied, and then gestured forward as the two ran away (Raven floating overhead) from the Tower, even as the barrier metal slammed shut over the new hole.

* * *

"The first unit of Lanceheads is landing! No problems with the Cottonmouth and River Jack drops!" A Kobra grunt said, as he and a number of his similarly dressed brethren sat next to each other, helping coordinate the attack from a mass of computer monitors for a more fancily dressed member behind them.

"Anaconda preparations almost complete! Copperheads standing by for launch!"

"Death Adders in final fueling!"

"All weapons fully armed and functioning at maximum capacity!"

"Disrupting shield engaged! All communicative effects in 15 square mile radius scrambled!"

"Are the disrupting shields also functioning at proper parameters to prevent the half demon from teleporting on board?" The Kobra…Organizer said.

"Yes sir!"

"Stay alert! Launch the Copperheads! Finish the Anaconda preparations, NOW! And continue with the drop of all Lancehead paratroopers! Have the Blackadders and Nagas ready to go at any moment! We will not fail the master! CRUSH THE INFIDELS!"

* * *

The Kobra paratrooper grunts, which were apparently called Lanceheads, had by now landed on the island with a force several dozen strong, and the high tech motor boats (called Cottonmouths) and the troop carriers (called River Jacks) would soon be bringing more.

But the first arrivals didn't get a warm welcome, as instead several rocks near where they had landed and were preparing to march opened up and produced unpleasant looking projectile weapons.

"Targets sighted. Fire." A computer voice droned, as the weapons exploded into action, firing heavy-density rubber bullets and powerful concussive and disrupting energy shots. The weapons were not fatal, but they damn sure hurt like hell, as the front guard was blasted down with a eruption of screams and squeals of pain, the men knocked unconscious, their nervous systems sent into spasming chaos, or just downed by immense pain, their light body armor providing little protection.

"RETURN FIRE! KOBRA!" One Lancehead ordered, and the remaining grunts did so. Unlike the weapons that were firing on them, the Lanceheads carried decidedly lethal weapons, in both projectile (bullets) and non-projectile (laser and plasma) versions. Within seconds the defensive guns were riddled and exploded, belching fire and smoke.

The Kobra grunts yelled in triumph, chanting their organization's name.

It was too quick a celebration, as the thick black smoke shifted, and then Savior walked through it.

"Hello." He said. The Kobra grunts gaped, and then yelled and yanked up their weapons.

As Raven slid from the darkness that had appeared behind the grunts and reached out, seizing all of the armed cultists and sending them flying forward with a scream.

Savior met them with a devastating Shimmer lash, and the group was flung screaming out onto the ocean.

"Fifteen down, 82 million to go." Savior said as he looked up.

As the flash of sunlight caught his eye, and then the helicopter whose canopy it had reflected off swooped down, as the side gunner opened fire with a rapid-shot laser blaster. Savior cursed and dove to the side as the miniature helicopter (it could only fit two people: the pilot and the side gunner, though it looked as heavily armed as any Apache) raked the ground where he had just been. Savior flung himself forward via Shimmer lines to avoid another spray, and then leapt behind a rock as the gunner tried to get another bead on him.

As Raven flew up, seized the whirring main rotors with her black energy, and crushed them within her grip like a child breaking a toy. The helicopter plunged, crashing into the rocky ground as the two Lanceheads leapt for safety, though they probably sure as hell hurt themselves landing.

Savior stood up, as Raven looked down at him. He gave her a reassuring thumb circle, and then pointed. Raven turned around.

Three more of the miniature helicopters were heading her way, even as more were launched off the main ship, all painted the same black and green. These were the Copperheads, and Kobra apparently built them in bulk.

Raven gestured, indicating she'd handle the helicopters. Savior gave her a thumbs up, and then indicated he'd handle himself on the ground. Raven nodded and turned, flying towards the attacking machines. They opened fire on her with machine guns, but a black energy shield sprang up and deflected their shots, even as Raven's eyes narrowed and she began chanting her universal focus…

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos..."

Savior let his actions speak for him: as he ran towards where the next group of paratroopers was landing. They opened fire on him, which Savior should have realized was a distinct possibility, as he cursed under his breath and leapt/rolled to the side. Shimmer lines sprang from his body in mid-motion, seizing up any and all of the dropped weapons the first unit had left behind that Savior could find, as Savior flipped back up to his feet and opened fire with them, using them to blow a lot of gaping holes in the paratroopers' parachutes. And they were way too close to the ground to open backups, but not close enough that the fall would be painless. Savior didn't envy their knee tendons, but that did nothing to slake his fire-rate.

And even as that happened, another paratrooper Lancehead some distance away landed and worked to pull his parachute off of him.

The first thing he saw was a smiling blonde teen.

"Hi!" Gauntlet said, and punched the Lancehead in the face with a metal fist. He went down like a ton of bricks.

The boy took one last glance at the fallen minion and looked up to see the hundreds more descending towards him.

"You know," Gauntlet pondered, "Putting so much effort and man power just to take us down. It's really kinda flattering once you get down to it." He nodded as if agreeing with himself before glancing at the nearest one, who had just landed. "Don't you think so?"

The Lancehead seemed quite confused before answering. "KOBRA!"

His attempt at swinging his snake-themed nightstick was stopped as two golden energy cuffs neatly bound his wrists.

"I can never have a nice conversation with you people!" Gauntlet protested, as he swung the man in a circle, the energy extending into a golden rope that allowed some distance between the two as Gauntlet swung.

And swung… And swung…

And then literally threw the Lancehead back the way he came from. The poor man crashed against others still descending, the impacts not slowing him down much as he kept flying in the direction of the airship, before finally losing momentum a few seconds later and falling into the ocean about halfway through.

"Take THAT, Harry Potter and your bloody gnome-throwing record. I totally pwned you!"

He once again glanced at the troops approaching him and realized that taking out three really hadn't put a dent on their forces at all.

"Oh fudge, enough."

A bladed line shot out of the Gauntlet, Robert borrowing one of Savior's favorite tricks, and with one precise swing cut all of the parachute ropes. The men fell like screaming flies before crashing into shore.

None moved, aside from a couple of twitches.

"These guys have GOT to be Cobra." Gauntlet blinked. "They are all morons!"

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that's--" Gauntlet stopped in mid-sentence and turned around to find that a whole armada had somehow gotten past him and were now menacingly surrounding him.

These men were not Lanceheads, however. They moved with more swiftness and grace, and their outfits were far different: The looked like green and gold stereotypical face-covered snake-themed ninjas.

Gauntlet faltered at the sight. "Terrorist ninjas? Are you KIDDING me?"

Hey, I didn't come up with them!

And at least it explains why they hadn't been noticed until now…

* * *

"Titans, come in! What's the situation?" Robin yelled into his communicator as he ran down yet another hallway.

"Another few seconds and we're out!" Cyborg replied.

"I'm ready!" Terra added.

"We've fully prepared: show us what to hit." Scalpel growled.

"And I am ready to defend our home as well Robin!" Starfire said as she suddenly appeared beside him, now dressed for combat.

"Robin, you better get them out here fast, this is already getting ugly!" Savior snapped, the sound of heavy weapon fire clear in the background.

"Okay, get out on the field team! I'll give you further orders in a second!" Robin said. "Star, elevator! The roof! I need to observe and plot the defense!"

"Understood! I will protect you!" Starfire said as Robin pressed a button on his communicator, and a part of a nearby wall opened, revealing a small hidden elevator. The two crammed themselves in as the door and wall slammed shut.

As another door opened, and the T-Car roared out, a larger version of Cyborg's sonic cannon mounted on its top, Beast Boy behind the weapon. Though he felt a little guilty, he knew if the shoe was on the other foot Kobra would gladly make mincemeat of him, and so he located his targets with the cannon and began firing: in this case, descending paratrooper Lanceheads, who were knocked to the ground with a bone-jarring thud.

As Terra ran down another hallway, now fully dressed for combat herself, including her new battle jacket, as she did the same trick Noel did to get out a window. Except she didn't have Raven to weaken it for her.

So she just rammed it with a cluster of highly impure diamonds until it broke.

"Let's rock." She commented, as she slipped on her goggles and dove out the window. "KINTOOOOOOOOOOO!"

A yellow cloud didn't come to her aid (and even if it inexplicably had she probably wouldn't have been able to ride it anyway), but the rock that flew beneath her feet as she flipped and landed worked fine. She flew around, waving her arm up as she ripped scores of rocks from the ground, looking for some new homes for them. Like right between some terrorist eyes.

But Terra wasn't everywhere, and hence she missed the small group of paratroopers that had landed close to the Tower and made their way to it, as they prepared explosives to blast their way in.

They didn't have to: the armored metal opened for them.

As a massive cloud of bats streamed out and enveloped the group, and the members screamed and tried to defend themselves. They never saw the angry looking alien walk out of the door in turn and proceeded to floor every Lancehead, two with a backhand, one with a thrust kick, and the rest with the deadly weighted glaive Scalpel carried. Scalpel nicely used the flat end of his bladed appendages and weapon, but that was more him not wanting to get blood on Sophie and less mercy on his behalf.

The bats gathered and then condensed into Sophie Matthews, now in the identity of Morgue, having traded her suit and coat for a black fully bodied outfit complete with a full facial mask: only her brown hair remained exposed. Scars of stitched white ran down her face and chest in a Y-Shape: the same white material also ran down the outside of her legs in a straight line, a white contrast also seen on the top of her gloves and boots and on her gear belt, as well as on the bone framework of the folded up wings beneath the arms of the outfit, like Wile. E. Coyote, except practical. On her back rested a modified machine rifle snug in a harness, as Morgue promptly drew two modified sidearms that fired tranquilizers.

"Cry havoc." She said, and the two went out onto the battlefield.

And even as more guns and defenses opened, armed, and began protecting the Tower and the areas around it, an armored portion of the roof opened and the elevator slid out, disgorging Robin and Starfire, as the Teen Wonder ran for the rooftop edge and looked out, even as the elevator slipped back in and the roof re-sealed itself.

Savior hadn't been kidding: the advance troops had become a flood. Robin's eyes flicked over the battlefield, on the ground and in the air. After several seconds of reconnaissance, he pulled out his communicator.

"Okay guys, listen good! Cyborg, Beast Boy, the boats are congregating on the large stretch of sand to your right, try and block their beachhead! Scalpel, Savior, Morgue, Gauntlet, it looks like a lot of the paratroopers are going to land in your rough area, take them out! Terra, assist Raven in air defense, there's a lot of ordnance coming off that ship and we can't let their air superiority get any better! Starfire, you too. They need all the help they can get."

"But Tim…"

"That's an order Starfire. I can…"

As a Kobra Lancehead landed behind Robin, Starfire having been so focused on the teenager she didn't see him until it was too late, as metal blades that looked a lot like snake fangs sprang from the Lancehead's wrist and he lunged at Robin with a cry…

Robin backhanded him, knocking him cold.

"Look after myself." Robin finished.

Starfire looked at him, worry still in her eyes, and Robin allowed himself just a moment to give her arm a comforting stroke.

"Go."

"…be careful." The alien said.

"You too." Robin replied, and Starfire took to the sky.

And found it as infested as any Tamaranian battle she had ever participated in.

"There are so many of them-"

The Princess of Tamaran's words were cut off when one of the helicopters—Copperheads, they were called—blasted a spray of miniature missiles directly at the tower. She did not even look to see if the projectiles had hit her home or what damage it might have done: instead Star flew straight towards the copter that had fired the projectiles, slamming through the glass of the cockpit and throwing the pilot outside. She turned and fried the controls with a burst of eyebeams and then flew out, retrieved the pilot (not all of the Copperheads were two-manned) and dropped the pilot on the roof.

Robin, who was surprised to see Starfire back so soon, glared down at the terrorist and kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

"Do what you can…" Robin said, "But going out of your way to save them is going to get us all wasted."

Starfire read the intensity behind her lover's mask, and immediately understood. More explosions in the background punctuated his words.

"Understood. I will… attempt to avoid the taking of life."

"Take comfort that we'll be obeying the rules of war better than they will," Robin growled, throwing a Birdarang at another paratrooper that landed atop Titans Tower. Several more followed. Robin muttered a curse but ordered Starfire to take down the Copperheads and leave him to his own devices.

As Starfire took off back into the sky, flames erupted all around her; more air units filling the skies above the Island, as well as Terra and Raven mounting their own defenses. Starfire could barely see where she was going, and in all the confusion, maintaining enough unbridled joy to stay airborne was becoming particularly difficult. Robin, still on the roof, was somehow managing to avoid untimely death through all the chaos. In fact, he was thrashing his opposition. This lifted her spirits, somewhat.

She dodged a blast from another Copperhead and returned fire, blasting the rotor blades off the top and sending the vehicle careening into the island below. Starfire would have tried to rescue the pilot—for Robin's sake, at least—but by the time she turned around, she was suddenly confronted with a far more pressing concern.

As she was suddenly being razed by a supersonic jet, the high-powered machine screaming past her and sending her briefly tumbling. By the time she had recovered, the jet had swooped around and was heading back towards her, the usual green and black colors bearing down at her as ultra-advanced weapons armed and fired. Starfire dodged out of the way of the bullets and returned fire with her eyebeams, but the plane proved too fast for her shot.

"Crap." Cyborg said, looking up and out the window of his car as he headed for the beach, having heard the distinctive sound of afterburners. "Is that an F-22 Raptor? Damn! Those things are even faster then Star and almost as maneuverable!"

Indeed it was, a heavily modified one known as the Death Adder.

But Starfire had more to worry about then that, as before she could get her bearings, the jet was out of range, and Starfire felt something slam into her back. She pitched forward, briefly faking that she was hurt more than she was, then flipped over in mid air and fired off a pair of eyebeams at whatever had hit her.

The beam struck him in the chest, sending him backwards into the smoke and chaos around them. It turned out her assailant was one of the Kobra grunts—Heads of Lance, if she recalled Robin's word for them correctly. And this 'Lancehead' wasn't alone, as several more soon rushed at her, all of them supported by jetpacks. They began striking Starfire with tonfa clubs and 'sticks of the night', and though her powers made them little more than annoyances, she was quickly forced to defend herself lest the annoyances get lucky and injure her severely.

Starfire elbowed the one to her right in the face and kneed another in the stomach, then grabbed a third and whirled them around as a small plump plumber had once done in a popular Earth video game, sending one of the snake-men into the cockpit of another Copperhead. She flinched when she heard the bones crunch and was profusely thankful to X'hal that he had not landed in the blades of the helicopter instead…

Until the man with the broken back then got even more unlucky when he tried to open his parachute; the chute flew up and was immediately ensnared into the blades of the Copperhead, getting tangled up therein. The Lancehead got another taste of what Beast Boy called 'the dizzy' as he was twirled around the stalling rotors.

Starfire blushed red, then flew through the helicopter, exposing all its fuel to the air and tossing its pilot out the window before blasting the gas tank.

The resounding KRAKABOOM was both satisfyingly loud and appropriately distracting. Starfire slipped away from the explosion, tearing through another troupe of Lancehead with jet packs; the maternal vessel of the Kobra—Starfire didn't yet know its name—had opened its side bays and was releasing another one of its heavily modified supersonic jets.

And when the Tower defenses blew another nearby Copperhead to smithereens, Starfire realized that that needed to be her target; her Starbolts wouldn't be able to damage the mothership itself, but the jets were a far larger threat to the Tower than the Copperheads were…

* * *

"All offensive efforts proceeding as planned, master." The minion once again informed the figure sitting on the throne.

"Excellent. You have your orders. Continue as planned."

"Yes master, we shall…" The minion trailed off as he was apparently given some new information in an ear-placed communicator. "We are getting a report that the flying alien is attempting a direct assault on the _Divine Scar._"

"Then repulse her! Do not bring to me such obvious statements! This ship has enough firepower to reduce this whole state to ash, surely you can handle a single alien!"

"Of c-c-ourse master we just…"

"Be gone!" The master said, already sick of the sniveling again. The minion scampered off once more.

The master was actually quite capable of checking the status of the battle himself, but until now he had been devoting his thoughts to what came after, once the teenage heroes who had the unfortunate placement on the island they needed were crushed. But he was done doing that: time to see the battle with his own eyes. So to speak.

A panel slid aside on his throne, and he tapped a few buttons as various holographic screens appeared before him, as the master put a listening jack into his ear, the voice in it detailing the carnage that was being shown raging down on the island. He was well pleased: it struck him as an omen.

And as he listened to what was shown on the screens, he made his choice, as he turned them off with a button press and stood from his throne.

A silent Kobra minion came from the shadows, draping a cloak of finest gold and green silk over his form. Another offered him shoes, but he dismissed them.

"I wish to go down and aid in the battle." He spoke to the shadows, and moments later four men emerged from then, unseen and still before then. Unlike the Kobra Lancehead grunts, who were all average sized, these four men were giants, all of them towering over the master, and their armor was far more innate, their bodies and heads covered with metal and plastic protection all adorned in the form of various snakes. The light rippled off their golden ridged chest plates, even as the veins bulged in their inhuman muscles.

"No. I wish to go alone. Go assist your brothers."

The giants nodded as one, and then were gone once more.

"Do you wish to be teleported to your desired destination master?" One of his servants asked him.

"No. I will utilize a lift. Contact the Copperheads and Death Adders and make sure I am not interrupted. Otherwise, I require no assistance. I will cut off the head of this beast myself."

"As you wish." The servant replied, and the master walked forward, he himself vanishing into the dark.

* * *

The air was filled with bullets, as Raven formed a shield all around her and absorbed the impacts, feeling the feedback rattle through her head. But she'd experienced far worse, as she flew to the side, converting her shield energy into a powerful bludgeon that smashed the attacking Copperhead from the sky.

Another tore at her, as the small helicopter fired its missile payload at her, the four smaller but still potent explosives streaking at the sorceress.

She held out an arm towards them as dark energy seized them, and the missiles jerked and altered course, the tiny darts all streaking past her, the windshear buffeting her cloak, as Raven gestured. The missiles were abruptly turned around, and fired back at the Copperhead, blasting it to pieces in mid air as the two Lanceheads who'd been on it plummeted towards the sea.

But there were more where those had come from, as Raven looked across the aerial battle. It looked like Starfire was making a thrust at the main war ship. Perhaps Raven could assist there…

* * *

Unfortunately, Raven wasn't close enough to help immediately, which would have served Starfire well, as there were many threats to her person, least of all the most recent pair of jetpack-clad Lanceheads streaking at her. Both of them had their arms extended, snake-fang shaped blades attached, the blades—and their owners—rocketing towards Starfire as though militants on a suicide run.

Starfire snarled a Tamaranian insult and flipped backwards in the sky, aiming her feet at the two Lanceheads. Predictably they continued to fly towards her, shouting 'Kobra' over and over.

And right into her feet as she flipped, as she kicked them both in the face so hard that their helmets shattered and blood began leaking from their noses. Starfire continued towards the docking bay of the giant skyship, confident neither soldier would be foolish enough to turn around and come after her again…

Just as she almost reached the bay that was launching the jets (at least the one she could see), swarm of Copperheads appeared, Starfire not even sure where they came from. The attack came immediately, missiles and bullets filling the air, and Starfire retreated from the latter, able to tolerate the former a bit better. She smashed the side of one copter, taking off its tail rotor with the sound of rending metal--and then blasting another—the one spewing bullets—with a Starbolt. The blast slammed into the gun turret on the bottom and the gun immediately stopped firing, parts of it melting and falling off into the bay below.

Unfortunately, at that point one of the others blasted the first one she had struck, trying to get Starfire and hitting their ally instead. It was doubly unfortunate as said miss caused the helicopter to explode with Starfire right next to it.

The princess' vision filled with nothing but white, her body forced backwards with the concussive force of the blast. How she avoided getting cut to death by shrapnel, Starfire would never know. Still, as she recovered and regained her senses, she noted there was a gash on her left arm, precisely where her armband would be if she wore it on that arm.

"Perhaps it is time to perform the doubling up," she observed aloud.

Starfire blasted the propeller blades of the remaining Copperheads, causing them to plummet into the waters below. She vaguely hoped that the snake men inside knew how to swim, but if they did not—well, they brought this all upon themselves by attacking the Titans' home.

A peculiar sound reached Star's ears, something similar to the sound of Cyborg opening the Garage Door of the Tower. Except she was nowhere near the garage or even close to the Tower, and the sound was coming from above her. She glanced up and immediately saw the problem—and dodged a flurry of laser blasts.

Energy weapon turrets had opened up on the hull of the Kobra command ship, and were now emptying their venom on Starfire…

Starfire briefly considered that she'd just made a snake-connection to a non-living organism and grew very weary of the motif the terrorists had wrapped themselves in. But she didn't really have time to ponder; the lasers were raining down on her and she had to fly out of the way.

Which she did, slamming into the side of the sky-ship near the laser farthest to her left as she began tearing the turrets off at the base, one by one, as she flew by. Even though one of the nearest to the docking bay hadn't opened properly because the charred rotor of the Copperhead taken down by friendly fire was lodged in the turret mechanism, Starfire proceeded to sear the cannon of that turret shut with her eyebeams; it would probably be more difficult to get the helicopter blades off than it would be to replace the cannon wholesale, and Starfire was in a particularly uncharitable mood at the moment, the smell of combat in the air in a way she hadn't seen since the time Blacktrinian insurgents had attacked the capital of Tamaran during the 50 Septar War.

She finally found her attention completely focused on the bay launching the Death Adders, and immediately smashed the nearest plane inside the bay, cracking the cockpit with a hammer-fist strike, then snapping the wings in half with a kick.

A pair of much larger looking shock-troops (indeed, the same kind that had been guarding the master) rushed out into the bay, taking shots at Starfire with strange energy weapons; Star dodged them, returning fire before leaving the bay altogether and heading towards the next one.

But before Star could get to the second Death Adder, it had taken off, blasting through the air at speeds it would take a Flash to match. Starfire followed it, trying to anticipate its arc, but quickly found it was moving too fast over the open ocean for her eyes to even track. Thankfully it soon turned around in an effort to make its attack run on the Tower, and Starfire blasted towards it with all her considerable might, her hands directly out in front of her—and before she knew it, she collided head-on with the Death Adder, her hands against the very nose of the cockpit…

WHAMMO!

The strain was immense; Star felt her muscles begin to burn, her bones jarred by the vibration of the jet as it began to push forward. But a little fact of physics; airplanes, jets included, require forward motion to stay aloft. And Starfire, though greatly to her own strain, was slowing the forward motion of the Black Adder to a crawl.

"You will not go any farther!" She shouted, gritting her teeth as she gave the ship one final shove; it began to fall towards the ocean. Starfire was startled at how close the plane had pushed her to the Island in the short time she'd been in contact with it. The alien swooped down and blasted the cockpit open with a Starbolt; unfortunately, it was instantly obvious the pilot inside was dead, either killed by the whiplash of the plane suddenly stopping or by his own hand.

Starfire didn't know, and didn't want to. There was still far more danger to come.

* * *

Back on ground level, Cyborg had suffered a setback as an attacking Copperhead had gotten lucky and badly damaged the roof sonic cannon with gunfire, wrecking it and forcing Beast Boy inside the car. Cyborg was doing his best to make up for that as he rammed that T-Car into any and all enemies who had the misfortune of ending up in front of it, the damage barely denting the car but steadily decreasing Kobra's numbers.

"Are--" Beast Boy began, after an especially violent crash that caused him to hit his head against the ceiling of the car. "…Are you SURE we should just run them over like this?!"

Cyborg didn't let up on the gas. "They are wearing protective gear from head to toe, and I'm not even going at half maximum speed; they'll live. Even if there are some nearly-lethal injuries, there'll be plenty of time to take them to a hospital."

"If you say s--ACK!"

One of the most recent Lanceheads had managed to hang on to the side of the car, glaring bloody murder as he took out a gun and aimed at Cyborg's head.

BANG! BANG BANG!

The man's eyes widened as the bullets came to a complete and total halt upon contact with the glass.

"Bulletproof windows, A-hole." Cyborg grinned before slamming his foot into the brakes.

The T-Car slide across the ground, coming dangerously close to flipping over; but the worst happened to the Lancehead, who went flying like a rock over and into water after inertia seized hold of him.

Cyborg managed to get his car under control and looked over to see Beast Boy rolling down his window, a worried expression on his face.

"Uh B, the whole point of bulletproof glass is that you actually keep it between you and the things shooting the bullets!"

"There's a good reason Cy! There's another group trying to make a landing over there!" Beast Boy said, as he pointed out the window. Cyborg looked and cursed: he'd gotten bogged down here and left another part of the beach open.

"Don't worry! I can handle it!" Beast Boy said as he gave a thumbs up.

"You sure B?" Cyborg said: Beast Boy was a lot softer then he was.

"No problem! I got your back Cy!" Beast Boy said, and then turned into a housecat and jumped out of the window, scampering away. Within moments he was out of Cyborg's sight.

The mechanical marvel shoved his worries down and let the engine roar again, noticing that the short intermission had been more than enough to get himself surrounded by the seemingly endless grunts.

His finger lingered tentatively around the trigger for the sonic cannon attached to the front of the car, but he changed his mind after a moment: unlike his personal version and the one Beast Boy had been using on the roof, that design of his trademark weapon weapon was vastly powerful and meant for large machines. He didn't know if a human would survive it and his conscience wouldn't allow him to test it on the Lanceheads.

So he simply settled for the far more benign and merciful act of running them over.

Repeatedly.

...Seriously, it IS a lot nicer than blasting them with highly concentrated to the potential point of bone-liquefying sonic waves.

Not that the Lanceheads appreciated this as Cyborg plowed through them. The men, however, proved to be surprisingly courageous and a tad suicidal as many jumped into the car in an effort to stop him.

Fat chance, Cyborg mused as he made a swift turn to shake off two more: there was no part of his car that wasn't heavily armored and more than enough to stop blades and bullets.

_Beep beep beep!_

Cyborg blinked at the sudden noise, and then spotted a large circle glued to the hood of the car. It hadn't been there before.

"Bomb." Cyborg croaked. One of the bastards had managed to stick a bomb before he shook him off! How the--?

_BEEPBEEPBEEP!_

"DAMN!" He cried, jumping out the door and wildly rolling on the ground. Sometimes being mostly metal was a blessing: had he been flesh, such an act would have torn his skin horribly.

The T-Car kept driving in a straight line for a couple of seconds before the timer finally went off. The explosion's backlash forced Cyborg onto his back, and he was the one that handled the shockwave best. Lanceheads around him went flying and landed in more awkward and painful positions.

After the smoke had cleared, the T-Car was in ruins and covered in black soot: the heavy defenses it had had stopped it from being completely destroyed, but it was now of no use. That had been a strong bomb.

"OH MAN!" Cyborg protested, staggering to his feet. "MY CAR! AGAIN! It's like a sick joke!"

But that proved to be the least of his worries, as no sooner had the words left his mouth when dozens of Lanceheads trampled on him with war cries.

Cyborg was buried beneath the small army in a second.

* * *

Savior's Shimmer talent rapidly emerged from his arm, forming into a shield Savior crouched behind as bullets and lasers tore into the energy, fired by two Kobra Lanceheads. Savior cursed again, slamming his free palm on the ground, lancing a Shimmer line into the ground and sending it 'snaking' down and around the two Lanceheads, who never had a clue it was coming before it exploded from the ground behind them, split in two, seized their heads, and slammed them together. Yanking the line from the ground, Savior grabbed the two falling bodies and swung the line up and over his head, slamming them into another descending paratrooper.

But even while Savior was doing that, more had landed, and they were charging at Savior's flank. The white-haired teen whirled, his power lashing around him…as one of them sliced at it with his wrist blades, cutting the white energy and causing Savior to rear back with a snarling hiss, pain slamming through his body as his power's lone weakness bit him in the ass, again.

Another swung at Savior with a crackling taser rod. Savior ducked under the blow and judo flipped the Lancehead, using the Shimmer to slam him firmly into the ground before he whirled around and slammed another lancing blow into the forehead of another grunt. Another was stabbing at him: Savior threw himself backwards, Shimmer lines coiling beneath him as he then threw himself back forward, slamming a fist between the grunt's eyes, and he crumbled…

Revealing a Lancehead drawing a bead on Savior's chest with a plasma rifle.

At least until twin darts slammed into his neck, and he reeled back and collapsed. Savior blinked.

"Need some help?" Scalpel asked, strolling up, clutching a Lancehead by the neck.

"Much appreciated."

"I aim to please." Scalpel said, and then reared back and hurled the Lancehead through the air, as he crashed into three of his companions and took them all down.

"Your aim's pretty good at that." Savior commented.

"Now all I need is a bigger gun." Scalpel replied wryly.

"Considering how much your species dislikes being shot, that's probably not a good thing, but I get your drift. We're far too behind here. Let's see if we can't get a heads up." Savior said, as he grabbed the knocked out Lancehead Sophie had shot and yanked off his head covering (not all the grunts wore helmets), as he prepared a Shimmer probe. The energy came from a mutation of his nervous system, and hence it could interact with other nervous systems, allowing Savior to 'jack in' and read the minds of living creatures, which Savior was doing right down as the energy slid through the Lancehead's ear to connect with his brain to get a rundown on the attack plans…

"NGHHHHHHHH!" Savior hissed, yanking his arm back, the Shimmer pulling free as the Lancehead collapsed to the ground. "Damn it!"

"What?"

"Someone did their research. There was a…something or other, I think it was a nanomachine cluster, in the brain, when I tried to connect it repulsed me. If I tried to force the issue, I'd have cooked the bastard's mind like an egg in those old drug ads. Damn. Why do I have a feeling that if I found it in this randomly selected grunt I'll find it in all the troops?"

And even as Savior spoke, a fresh unit of Lanceheads made landing, Morgue having been tied up with her own fight.

"I guess we have to do things the old fashioned way." Scalpel said as he swung his weapon to bear.

* * *

And new troops weren't just landing there.

"Come on! FASTER! FOR THE GLORY OF KOBRA!" A Lancehead leader yelled as half a dozen boats, four of the Cottonmouths and two of the larger boats called River Jacks which were purely used to move troops, landed on a small stretch of sand down the beach where the main thrust was being 'held off' by Cyborg.

"KOBRA!" The men chanted in reply.

And then the water abruptly exploded, as a massive form rose from beneath, and even as the Lanceheads began to react it crashed down on them, as Beast Boy used the form of a blue whale to smash most of the boats to scrap. But even as his weight began to settle he vanished, rapidly switching to a much smaller form so his bulk wouldn't become a disadvantage in the shallow water.

The Lanceheads were thrown into disarray, as they tried to get onto the beach and drag their stunned comrades with them, as the lead barked orders.

"FIND HIM! SHOOT HIM! DO NOT…" The leader bellowed as Beast Boy swam up the coastline as a minnow…

And then the water erupted as Beast Boy switched to the form of a Triceratops, and the Lanceheads screamed as he plowed through them, knocking them aside like bowling pins.

He couldn't hit all of them though, and several he didn't hit immediately began firing at his side. Beast Boy immediately switch to a dragonfly, the shots missing the much smaller form as he buzzed over…and became a polar bear, as he smashed the grunts aside with one powerful swipe of his giant paw (no claws, Gar didn't need them). Two Lanceheads tried to flank him: Beast Boy switched to a horse and with a whinnying neigh bucked the two of them through the air, and even before they hit the ground again Beast Boy became an orangutan and leapt over to the leader.

"Ever read _Murders In The Rue Morgue?_" Beast Boy inquired, even as he used his long, dexterous arms to relieve the leader of his large laser rifle and then return it to him, butt first, to the face. The leader crumpled.

"Yeah, no one reads any more." Beast Boy said, and turned into a rhinoceros and once against stampeded through the Kobra Lanceheads as they tried to regroup.

* * *

Meanwhile, another grouping of Cottonmouths was making for the same beach Cyborg was trying to guard, bringing troops and additional firepower to make his job even harder.

But that was why he had teammates.

As the water abruptly split, as a massive flying spear of rock emerged from the sea like an angry shark, slamming into the first Cottonmouth head on and shattering it to pieces as Terra, snug inside her battering ram, smashed right through it. She briefly opened several slits in her rock-protection to see where she was going, and then turned and charged at another boat, whose sailors opened fire at her, their bullets whining off her protective rock for the few seconds they managed to shoot before Terra smashed through them, sending the occupants flying.

Two more roared at her, bouncing across the choppy water as the whirling gatling cannons mounted on the front of the boat blasted a storm of deadly bullets. Terra could feel the many impacts, but they didn't concern her.

The mortar one of the boats fired did, as it slammed against her rock-ram and nearly shattered it, Terra nearly falling off her platform and crashing into the sea. Angered, her eyes shone yellow, as she raised both hands and slammed them in opposite directions.

Her protective shield broke off from her, forming into a giant rock arrowhead that fired at the boat on the right, smashing into the front and causing the boat to flip on its face and shatter against the water, even as Terra soared upward into the sky and then kicked her rock platform, sending it flying from her feet and down at the other boat like a meteor, the motor boat breaking apart as Terra fell…

As the arrowhead flew under her, Terra grabbing it with one hand. She grabbed ahold of the platform with her other hand and yanked herself up, as the rock reformed beneath her feet into a more friendly firing shape…and four Copperheads flew at her, firing rapidly.

Terra uttered a low curse and reached into one of her pockets, producing a handful of large, impure diamonds. Pretty much worthless as jewels, but as ammo, they served to teach the Copperheads a new equation.

Powerfully thrown diamonds plus precise targeting of helicopters equaled explosions.

Terra flew through the conflagration with a whoop of excitement, daring her next target to cross her path.

* * *

Even as Robin's own target crumpled, Robin having punched his lights out. He looked around and then glanced up: from what he could tell, there were no more of the descending troops heading his way. Robin turned and ran over to the other edge of the roof, scanning the battle around him. He brought out his communicator.

"Beast Boy, Cyborg might need help! Scalpel, Savior, careful, there's a group coming from your left! Raven, watch your flank…" Robin said…as his eyes seized on the fact that another group of Cottonmouths and a River Jack were landing on another open stretch of Titan Island, on the opposite side of where Cyborg and Beast Boy were mounting their defense.

"Damn it! Terra! There's a group landing on the south side! Quickly!"

"I see it." Terra replied, as she turned and swooped down. With a gesture, Terra sent the Cottonmouth boats near the shore flying asunder as she made her way to fulfilling Robin's request, and then turned and pelted several more with sharp stones laying about the rocky island, immediately filling their bottoms with water.

"Get on with it, Terra!" Robin shouted from her communicator.

"Oh, right, sorry." Terra said. Launching herself towards the attackers on the south side of Titans Island, Terra reached out with her mind and began collecting any and every loose rock she could find, seeing the attackers emerge from the water and land from the air. She extended a hand and the rocks flew out, smashing into the ground troops like machine gun fire, sending them scattering.

Shouts of 'Kobra!' reached her ears as the Lanceheads leveled their weapons, and she leaned back, locking herself in place with a few spare rocks and bringing her platform up as a shield to a stream of energy blasts that slammed into it. Some of her rock platform went flying off in charred bits and pieces and Terra muttered another curse as she strained to keep it from falling apart, jamming on the throttle when the lasers stopped and raising the small landing part some more before fishtailing in mid air and turning around; her ruse had worked.

You see, the landing party had began climbing the rocky outcropping where she and Beast Boy shared the 'secret' that had almost made Terra quit the team in shame, and Terra had been out there, probing the Earth with her mind long enough to know the intricacies of the geology.

Which was all a fancy way of saying, she was about to drop a bunch of rocks on them, and they'd never see it coming because their backs were now turned to where the attack was coming from.

And so she did, her eyes glowing yellow as she swooped down, reaching deep inside the Island with her powers and tearing rocks from the ground—then letting go and watching as they fell atop the River Jacks, burying them completely. The Cottonmouths were knocked asunder by the resulting waves, and when the dust cleared, there were only a few measly troops on the shore.

Terra swooped down and began pelting them with rocks until they fell unconscious; with a gesture, she buried them all up to their necks to prevent them from escaping should they wake up.

A series of explosions above her alerted Terra that there was still a hellacious fight going on, and she took off, her platform growing as she drew more earth to it. In the distance, she saw Starfire fighting with a huge wing of Copperhead helicopters, and arced towards them, chunks of her platform breaking off and becoming missiles that tore off the tail rotors of the helicopters. She hovered up beside Starfire, who landed on her platform rather abruptly, breathing heavily. Terra compensated with more energy, her eyes radiating more golden light as she added more mass and altered the shape of the platform to something more defensive.

"Are you okay, Star?" Tara asked, grabbing the alien princess by the shoulders.

"I am, as you say, struck repeatedly with the sticks."

"That's _beat with a stick_," Tara corrected, steering her platform.

Star nodded. "Earth's metaphors are certain to the point, yes?"

"Wanna tag-team?" Terra asked, smirking.

* * *

Robin might have disagreed with Terra's tactical offering, but he had other things currently on his mind, which was issuing new orders to his team, trying to coordinate them all…

So it's probably not surprising he didn't see the figure until he landed behind him. Hey, he was only human.

Robin jerked around, looking at the figure…the man. He looked to be in his mid-late 40's, and had a long head of blonde hair that streamed past his shoulders. He wore an ornate green and gold cloak over his body, and that was the only clothing Robin could see as the man straightened up.

He looked at Robin…and yet he didn't. Robin could clearly see the milky irises. The cloaked man was clearly blind.

"Hello." The master said as he straightened up, having easily used the small floating platform to sneak through the air battle and around the Tower, leaping off when he was above the building.

"…hmnf. I know you're not Dr. Livingstone. That either makes you a fool or the leader of this little war band you've decided to land on our island." Robin said. "But if I recall, the master of the Kobra organization was himself called Kobra. You don't look like Kobra."

"No, the former master who shared his namesake with the group, he is no longer among the land of the living. Angering a member of the Marvel clan can produce that result. Ensuring his body did not reach the Lazarus Pit he had set aside for such a possibility confirmed it. I now control the Kobra organization." The master said. "Since I barged in so rudely, let me introduce myself. I am Sir Edmund Dorrance. But you may call me King Snake."

"King snake…hmf. Taking the name of a snake known for being immune to other snake's venom and eating other snakes." Robin thought out loud.

"Your intelligence is great, though I expected that." King Snake said. Robin noted the accent that underscored his words. Noted and recognized it, and despite himself he chuckled.

"What amuses you?"

"Sir Edmund Dorrance…your accent…this day…heh. Gauntlet was right. The British really ARE coming."

"Do not think this matter has anything to do with matters of a national bent!" King Snake retorted, seemingly a touch angry at Robin's comment, perhaps thinking it cheapened the situation. "This has nothing to do with country, religion, or race! It involves the destiny of this world and how my organization will bring it about on this very night!"

"So what are we, practice?" Robin asked.

"No child…you see, you are simply on the wrong place. Of all our options for what comes tonight, the rest were simply far too impractical, having all sunk beneath the sea. So your island was chosen as the alter, so that after so much time and effort, the _Kali Yuga _can come about."

"Kali Yuga. The Hindu religion's age of chaos." Robin said. "And just how do you plan to do that and what does it have to do with us?"

"Simple, child. Tonight, for the first time in untold millennia, the stars and planets will be in the proper position. This land will become a nexus where the barriers between realms will weaken. And I, with the chosen one's blood sacrifice, will break down the wall and allow the serpent entity Apophis entry into your world. And in that, this corrupt society will burn to ash, as Kobra reigns supreme over the world that will come from it!"

Robin stared.

"…Okayyyyyyy." He replied. "You are aware you're insane, right?"

"Make your assumptions child. It will be the last thing you do."

"No, actually, I was thinking that that should be more along the lines of this." Robin said, and in a blur of movement he sent a Birdarang whirling at King Snake.

King Snake's own arm blurred, and a moment later he was holding the Birdarang, having plucked it out of the air like it was fruit from a tree. Robin's eyes narrowed: he hadn't expected helplessness but the fact still remained that King Snake was blind.

"You would cheat the world of a glorious battle on its final day? Do not be so rude child." King Snake said as he tossed the Birdarang aside. Robin tensed, feeling the familiar cold rage, the desire to protect surging through his veins. Even if King Snake was a babbling madman in regards to this 'Titan Island is a magic place, I'll use it to call a big nasty thing and it will destroy the world' explanation he'd given, he still had a gigantic army of men and machines that could wreck untold havoc on his friends and his city. Unless Robin stopped him.

And he would.

"You, who would slaughter the world, are telling me what it means to be rude? Tell you what King Snake." Robin said.

And then he did a gesture with his left arm and right hand that any British person would recognize. As futile as it was, as King Snake couldn't actually SEE it.

King Snake, as if sensing the sentiment anyway, chuckled.

"Let it begin."

And King Snake whipped off his cloak, revealing that he was clad only in a pair of loose green pants, his feet and chest bare, gold metal armbands on his wrists and a golden sash around his waist, a large tattoo of a snake painted on his defined chest muscles, as he leapt at Robin, his palms up and out and his fingers clenching as he prepared for personal combat.

And Robin in turn…produced several Birdarangs and rapidly threw them at King Snake one after the other, in no mood to play fair.

It didn't help, as King Snake batted the dangerous metal projectiles out of the air in one rapid fire motion of strikes, not lessening his pace in the slightest, as he charged in a Robin.

Robin's whole body went into combat mode.

King Snake sliced out with a fist.

Robin dodged to the left.

And even as he did King Snake stopped and slashed his right leg up, nailing Robin in the chest with a roundhouse before Robin could even complete his first dodge, the powerful impact slamming the wind from Robin's lungs and sending him flying through the air.

He crashed up against the edge of the roof, the impact rattling through him.

King Snake slowly swung and lowered his leg down, and then he gestured at Robin to come at him again.

The rage surging anew, Robin leapt up, drawing his metal staff and charging forth anew.


	3. Or Give Me Death

Part 3: ...Or Give Me Death

Terrorist ninjas. You almost expected a group of robot pirates to show up.

In retrospect, their ridiculous concept aside, the ninjas were far more resilient and difficult to deal with than the minor Lanceheads. If they'd been those mooks, Gauntlet would have fallen asleep from boredom by now. Oh, the things you put up with as a superhero for some entertainment.

Gauntlet rolled in order to avoid the snake-themed shuriken thrown at him: it didn't much help, as he still found himself surrounded by the masses of Blackadders, as he'd learned they were called. One would wonder why Gauntlet even felt the need to run, considering his shield was more than enough to deal with a couple of bladed stars, but Rob probably enjoyed making things dramatic.

Scattering away from them, Gauntlet flipped back to his feet and yelped as several Blackadders stormed down on him, lashing out punches. He staggered back, a faint feeling of overwhelmtion (was that even a word?) in the back of his head. Maybe he was being TOO entertained, so to speak.

"ACK! Time!" He shouted, making a peace sign. Amazingly, the Blackadders DID stop. "Er… HAIL HYDRA! …Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed!"

The ninjas stared for a second.

"Wrong comic company, man." Said one.

"Yeah, we're Kobra." Said another.

"Oh." Gauntlet said, looking somewhat irritated. "Why do we ALWAYS have to do a Marvel joke in every fic this hack makes? It's just stupid at this point!"

"Yeah." Most of the Blackadders agreed.

Silence.

"…FOR KOBRA!"

"EEP!"

Gauntlet twisted away from a punch and bent back just in time to avoid being sliced by a nunchuk (apparently, their arsenal _wasn't_ limited to throwing stars). Okay. Time to start fighting back.

So of course he backflipped into the center of the ninjas and made a handsign.

"SHADOW CLONE NO JUTSU!"

Nothing happened. And though the ninjas were hardly surprised, they still stared at him oddly.

"Always wanted to say that." Gauntlet shrugged. "And you guys beat me to it anyway."

A Blackadder tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"You are a bunch of identical clones." Gauntlet stated matter-of-factly. "Each one more identical than the next!"

The ninjas looked outraged.

"That's patently unfair!" One cried.

"Yeah!" Said a particularly offended one. "I enjoy collecting stamps!"

"And I speak Greek!" The first one added, looking rather proud of it.

Gauntlet looked ashamed. "I'm sorry… I had no idea. I just assumed…"

"Yeah well, next time you should consider our feelings before talking!" The first one hissed.

"GET THAT INSENSITIVE ASS!"

"Bugger." Gauntlet whined as even MORE ninjas randomly appeared out of nowhere and threatened to overwhelm him. Again.

Couldn't have that: Gauntlet avoided most of the following massive onslaught by ducking and dodging, weaving through the masses a bit before he seized one of the Blackadders.

"Hey!" He exclaimed. "You are the one that collects stamps!"

"You remembered!" The man said, delighted.

"YEP!" Rob grinned.

…And then he smashed him against his allies, using him as a shield to run through them, much like Cyborg had done with the T-Car, actually.

Sadly, the Blacadder was not as durable as an armored technological vehicle.

"Sorry about that, man." Gauntlet said to the twitching hobbyist as he put him down...and then stepped on his shoulders for a boost. "See ya!"

Rob jumped back, the enhancements on the gauntlet allowing him to leap a large distance, positioning himself roughly 15 feet over the ninja army. Shuriken and kunai came flying as expected, but by this point Rob had already forgotten about dramatics and they bounced off his shield harmlessly.

The Blackadders stepped back to see Gauntlet extend his arm, a giant mass of gold flowing out and solidifying into… a massive paperweight…?

Confused as they were, none of them missed the wild smile in Gauntlet's lips. And what it implied.

"…You are MAD!" One cried, shaken.

"Thank goodness for that," Gauntlet quoted, "'Cause if I wasn't it'd probably never work."

Only a few were able to escape mostly unscathed as the 'paperweight' collapsed upon all of them. And somewhere far away, Ben Hanson rolled in his grave upon reading Rob's line. Wait, he's not dead yet. Fine, he rolled ON his grave. He probably got muddy, but such was the curse of not being a POTC fan.

Rob landed on the gigantic mass of yellow energy, as the ones who had escaped the blow range struggled to their feet.

"Heh. Who needs the Green Lantern ring?" Gauntlet mused as he effortlessly evaded poorly aimed projectiles, jumping off the paperweight as it vanished and landed in front of the remaining ninjas.

"Yo."

"…KOBRA!"

Rob ducked under the first one's swing and kicked his back, sending him crashing forward onto his masked face. He then expanded his shield when two shuriken sank into it, causing them to ricochet back to the thrower and the one nearest to him. The fight had suddenly become quite easy. More evidence of this came when two jumped into the air towards him, and were swiftly seized by the ankles by a golden line and smashed against each other, each collapsing at one side of Gauntlet.

"They just don't make ninjas like they used to. Nice and Japanese."

The remaining ninja goggled.

"What the hell!" One protested. "How can we be getting our asses kicked so thoroughly?! We are the elite!"

"Wait!" Responded another. "This must be that Law of Inverse Ninja Effectiveness they mentioned in training!"

The first one look awestruck. "Of course! Hey! Everyone but me and Larry back off!"

"Aw crap." Gauntlet said as the two ninjas charged alone, with far more skill than he remembered. He barely dodged one when another punch crashed against his face, violently causing him to fall back.

"Great Scott!" He said, flipping back.

Just then a shuriken grazed his cheek, somehow getting past his nigh impenetrable shield.

"These ninjas are almost as skilled as I am!" Rob cried, forced to a full evasive maneuver. "There's no time to lose! I have to act, and fast!"

…Does this fight even make sense anymore?

* * *

A Copperhead drawing a bead on Raven suddenly found its main gun being crushed, backfiring and exploding, and as the small aerial craft lurched Raven smashed in its window with another thrust of black energy and flew on. Starfire's attempted attack had been repelled and she was now assisting Terra on other matters, but she'd cleared a path for Raven and the sorceress used it.

More cannons fired at her, but their attacks exploded on Raven's defensive shield as she flew up past them and onto the front of the gigantic deck of the main Kobra ship, flying past the two statues at the front as she found what she expected: lots of Copperhead helicopters being readied for launch, as well as lots of Kobra minions either preparing to fly or dive.

Raven gave them a new concern, as she seized the closest pair of Copperheads, enveloping them in her power, and hurled them to the side, as they smashed into the helicopters behind them and then the ones behind those in turn, turning the machines to scrap as the Kobra minions ran to get away from the shrapnel storm. Raven then reached out in another direction, seizing control of two of the mini-helicopter's systems and activating their weapons, sending a swarm of the mini-missiles out onto the deck and slamming into other Copperheads as well as fueling and arming vehicles. Explosions rocked the deck, and Kobra minions ran, flew, and screamed.

A few came out of a mass of fire, all aflame, and Raven pondered for a split second before seizing them with her energy, extinguishing the flames.

She then slammed them into the ground. She could only be so merciful.

Kobra, on the other hand, had no concept of gratitude or mercy, as dozens of troops recovered and opened fire on her. Raven threw up a shield, but the pressure was overwhelming, and she found herself being forced back.

As a Death Adder tore by, firing a stream of deadly rounds at her that missed her by mere inches. Raven hissed and retreated back: she needed to rethink her tactics…

* * *

Beast Boy's tactics were working just fine, as he kangaroo jump-kicked another Kobra Lancehead into the water and then avoided a laser blast by turning into a fly. Buzzing over, he became a tiger and pounced, slamming the Lancehead's head into the sand and knocking him senseless, then running over to a recovering one and smacking with a paw swipe to the face (no claws, again), knocking him out for good.

Two more Cottonmouth boats were heading for the beach, their twin gatling cannons opening fire at Beast Boy on the shore, and even as the bullets tore through the sand Beast Boy fearlessly charged towards the water and dove in, becoming a goldfish and then a dolphin as the water got deeper.

The Cottonmouths stupidly kept heading for the beach instead of turning back, and they paid for it, as massive green tentacles rose up and snagged the boats, shattering them as squid Beast Boy dragged the Lanceheads on board beneath the water and klonked their heads together.

And on the beach, another mass of Lanceheads reared back, the men and women screaming and grabbing their heads, as Cyborg stood up from where he'd been dog-piled.

The Lanceheads may have not truly have counted as typical and easily disposable grunts, but despite their training, they had very human limitations. And Cyborg had used one, arming his sonic cannon as he'd been pounced on and adjusting it so it emitted disruptive short range soundwaves instead of concentrated blasts of power. The effect drove off and crippled his attackers, and Cyborg had no problem abusing that fact as he proceeded to easily tear through the grunts, swatting them out of the way like flies and looking rather diabolical while doing it.

However, despite being a minor threat by themselves, and being hammered by disruptive sonic waves, Lanceheads did have firearms at their disposal, which were far more practical than, say, the stereotypical ninja gear Blackadders sported. And the Lanceheads at the outer periphery of the sonic attack had enough sense to retreat more and aim said firearms. Bullets ricocheted off of Cyborg, as he cursed and switched back to his classic blaster configuration, returning fire. But that let the closer attackers recover and resume attacking.

Cyborg wasn't caught by surprise this time, and hence fended off his foes with far better efficiency. But the sniping attackers kept doing so, and despite how effectively Cyborg was able to smash and throw his enemies aside, the numbers were starting to overwhelm him anyway, as more and more managed to get past his weapons and near enough to grab him.

"I cannot believe there are so many of them. Where the heck do villains hire..." Cyborg muttered through gritted teeth as multiple bullets sank into his armor. It was only a matter of time before they got lucky and damaged a life-support mechanism, or worse yet, managed to hit flesh...

"KOBRA!" Came the shout he was by now very familiar with as a gun was placed against his forehead.

BANG!

Cyborg punched the shooter into submission with his free arm, as his smoking hand let go of the barrel of the gun, the flattened bullet encased into his metal palm.

"Should've just fired." He muttered. "Screaming that constantly gives me a two second warning."

* * *

"The robot is holding his position more effectively then...expected." The Kobra minion said with some worry and fear, though the source of it was more the anger of the battle assault officer behind them than Cyborg's stand.

"It doesn't matter." The Organizer replied, as he looked with satisfaction at a computer screen. The animal-changer had been drawn off by the boats, which had kept him from noticing the considerably...larger threat.

And it was too late now.

"Anaconda! Your target is directly ahead! Leave no trace of his offensive body, flesh OR metal!"

A wordless cry of fanatical devotion was the only response. The Organizer grinned in satisfaction

* * *

And Cyborg couldn't get any, as he grabbed hold of another Lancehead and hurled him into a group of his fellows when his mechanical eye picked up a disturbance. He glanced at the shore, from where disturbance had originated, wondering what to expect.

Not what he saw.

As with a sudden roar, the water erupted anew, and Cyborg's lone eye nearly bugged out of its head as the massive vehicle drove up from beneath the waves and onto the shore. It looked like an APC…except about three times bigger. And with several glass domed gun turrets that immediately opened fire on Cyborg. And even as Cyborg sought cover from that, the front of it began to open, and Cyborg didn't need to be a genius to guess what was inside: more troops, a LOT more based on the size of the vehicle. This was the Anaconda, a specially modified underwater landing vehicle, and it was indeed filled with troops eager to ruin Cyborg's day even further.

_I can't let those bastards get a beachhead_, Cyborg thought as he shifted directions and ran towards the enormous vehicle. But the remaining Lanceheads of his original battle weren't about to be ignored as they rushed him from behind, trying to drag down and trample Cyborg.

Cyborg pressed on, smashing and slamming the men away, wincing as a bullet found its way into the back of his knee. He forced himself onward and knocked away the rest of his attackers with a spinning lariat that would have made Zangief proud, limping hurriedly forward...right into the new swarm of men that had emerged from the Anaconda.

Cyborg gave them a warm American welcome. The fact that it was a display of violence is a metaphor whose precise meaning I'll leave YOU to ponder.

"MOVE." Cyborg growled, aiming his sonic cannon directly to a particularly resilient Lancehead's face.

The man didn't budge.

"FOR KOBRA!" He roared and began to raise a weapon.

_BOOM._

Cyborg grimaced as the smoking form landed some distance away. Suicidal terrorists were the worst possible enemy you could get: They couldn't be intimidated. And there might be more of them, as he turned to keep fighting...

As one of them jumped on his back.

"HEY!" Cyborg said, trying to shake him off. He heard and felt something slam between his shoulders as he finally managed to grab a hold of the man's head and pulled him off…

…And felt roughly 100,000 volts of electricity violently surge through his body.

Cyborg screamed, falling to his knees, his body smoking and his system haywire; he couldn't make sense of his readings and his brain was pretty goddamn scrambled. He was too confused to remember how to open his hand in order to let go of the man he had seized seconds before. Said Lancehead had also suffered from the shock, and there was no doubt that, unlike Cyborg, he was dead. All the more reason Cyborg was trying desperately to be able to open his hand. He didn't like being reminded of the lengths such men would go...

Why had it suddenly gotten dark?

Cyborg's human eye looked up in time to see he was surrounded. With a great deal of weapons aimed at him. And he was only barely started to regain control of his scrambled systems.

"…Oh hell…"

"FIRE!"

And they did, as Cyborg screamed once again.

* * *

Scalpel lifted a troop off his feet with a lancing blow, the metallic fist of the alien doctor forcing his target backwards in a buckling thrust so he could collide with two of his brothers and carried on going for a good few feet. Thus entwined, the fellow Kobra servants collapsed in a pile of aches and snake scales. Scalpel shot a leg out behind him to catch another Lancehead, before swinging his glaive to meet him head on: it was only because of Scalpel's twisting with the blade that he didn't take the man's head clean off his shoulders. This Lancehead also went for a slight flight and collided with one of his fellow soldiers as Scalpel continued to use the men against themselves.

Scalpel, for all his hidden past, was a soldier in a particularly nasty war. Blacktrinian willingness to fight and Tameranean propaganda hid how nasty it had actually been, but when passionate and strong willed races collided against one another, things never went smooth. Nigel had tried so hard to block out the memories, like of having to sew his commanding officer's intestine back into his stomach in the middle of what a human might call a fox-hole, but he did it and he lived through it.

He didn't aim to stop living now.

Scalpel lashed out with his claws as another Lancehead closed in with a tonfa baton, slicing the baton to shreds as he tried not to slip into an all too familiar mindset, just in case he folded away his glaive and placed it within the lining of his old uniform. The Lanceheads would be far better off if he kept his weapon out. Oddly, it kept him sane.

Though he didn't exclusively use it, as he brought his clawed hand back and backhanded the grunt away with little effort.

More were coming. Nigel's powers may not have been as fancy as the others; he could only fight with the strength of many men, but it didn't mean he couldn't do fancy things. Like his next move: Nigel tossed his glaive into the air and dove between two soldiers, throwing his claws out and slicing their legs with deep grooves, sending them to the floor. He continued his roll, using the momentum to forward flip to his feet and bring two interlaced claws down on a man in a hammer blow, momentum and strength causing a light hit to be more devastating than it should have been. As the Kobra grunt collapsed, Scalpel caught his falling weapon. Perhaps to prove a point, he promptly folded it up and pocketed it.

Maybe he should have picked a better gesture, as bullets raked his feet and he recoiled.

"MONSTER!" Some of the Lanceheads shouted as they charged towards the alien in an arc, at least five men all acting at once, the same training and the same mindset leading to the same action, working together as some form of hive mind.

But they weren't the only ones who knew how to work together.

"Aye, there be tygers here." A soft, though dark voice echoed as a cloud of bats formed in front of the alien doctor, merging into Morgue, as her hand threw out some orb shaped objects and then turned to Scalpel, extending her unique reality warping talent to him as both she and him transformed into an even larger cloud of bats and flew off.

The orbs fell short of their targets, bouncing along the ground. The Lanceheads just ignored them, thinking it to be a pathetic throw of a fat woman in too far over her head.

Shame they didn't realize the orbs were beeping…

As Morgue and Scalpel reformed in mid-air, the explosion rocked the ground, the force wave allowing them to hover in mid air for a moment. Scalpel nodded with a smile to his other half before beginning his plummet. Though the monstrous rate at which he was accelerating would have destroyed most men and sent their other half in to a blind panic.

Sophie just glided off using the wings in her uniform to aid her, using it to survey the surroundings to see where she was needed, while dropping the occasional bomb on the crowd below.

Nigel, on the other hand, wasn't most men.

Scalpel drew his glaive again and extended it in midair. This was an experiment that had happened before, when Gauntlet had been using his glaive without realizing the weight was all in the head of the weapon. Its folded form used an inertia-dampening weight management system that basically removed most of it. All the same, unfolded, the weight of the blade of this weapon caused the Blacktrinian to hurtle towards the ground at increased speed, as was his intention.

He hit the ground like a comet, scatting men below him as he did so, before getting up and getting to fighting again, a threat indeed to men.

Savior hadn't slacked off either, as he slashed off the ends of several Kobra guns with a Shimmer blade and then smashed them all aside with a Shimmer whip, and even as they went flying Noel formed a sphere of interlaced Shimmer lines and sent it flying up into the sky. It exploded through the floor of a Copperhead, and Savior yanked hard to the side, sending the machine slamming into another: both went down in flames.

But while doing that, the sound of a scream echoed in Savior's ears, and his eyes flicked in the direction of the sound. He immediately caught the sight of the massive Anaconda in the distance, and it's attackers blasting away at a near-defenseless Cyborg. His eyes narrowed.

"Scalpel!" Savior ordered, as the alien finished kicking a Blackadder out of his attempt to stab Sophie in the back and leapt over. "Cyborg's pinned down and no help is close! I'll watch Morgue, go help Cyborg!"

"All right. But you better damn well watch her." Scalpel growled, and ran towards his beleaguered teammate.

"Just us now?" Morgue said as she popped up next to Savior.

"Gauntlet's buggered off as he's wont to do." Savior replied tersely, having no idea where the annoying one had gotten off to this time.

"Better bring out the big gun." Sophie said, as she unholstered the large modified machine rifle on her back.

"You're sure you know how to use that thing?" Savior asked.

Smoke bloomed on the ground before them, and a new group of Blackadders leapt at the pair.

As Sophie shot them all out of their fancy acrobatics, the concussive-style bullets leaving them all down or moaning on the ground.

"You tell me." She replied.

Some distance away, Scalpel ran towards his target, as his eyes assessed the situation. Not only was Cyborg being hammered by the Kobra attackers, but the incredibly large vehicle that had landed had all their cannons trained on him as well. If Cyborg turned the tide, THEY'D start shooting, and they looked to have considerably more kick then the handheld weapons of the Lanceheads.

Having asserted the situation, Scalpel tensed as he prepared himself, and as the Anaconda came into range he crouched down and leapt, sending his body flying through the air as he raised his glaive.

The Lancehead in the upper right hand bubble-cannon never knew what hit him, as Scalpel slammed down on the Anaconda even as he brought his weapon down, smashing the pod and the laser cannons that protruded from it. With a snarl, Scalpel leapt away from that wrecked pod to the one in the upper center, grabbing the twin blasters and curling them up like pipe cleaners. Unfortunately, doing that made the gunner panic and pull the trigger, and as the pod exploded Nigel leapt to the next one, spearing out his glaive and impaling it through the pod. With another snarl, he ripped the pod right out of the vehicle in a massive surge of strength, and as the gunner scrambled out and fell into the ocean nearby Scalpel swung his weapon around and sent the weapon pod flying off and crashing into the backs of the Lanceheads all barraging Cyborg. Bodies flew, and screams rent the air.

Scalpel watched for a moment, as Cyborg jerked and then finally stood up, his body scoured and pitted by the shots he'd taken. But he seemed combat-ready...

As one of the remaining bubble-pods tried to shoot Scalpel off the Anaconda. But the weapon wasn't designed to fire at such close range, and a moment later Scalpel had impaled his glaive through it. This gunner, however, had a bit more guts, as he scrambled out and attacked Nigel as he tried to wrench the pod out once more.

As Cyborg's systems rebooted themselves and he stood, his body wracked with pain from the indignities hoisted on him. It took a certain kind of contemptible man to stand and fire away at an opponent and keep him alive to draw out his suffering.

Quid pro quo, as Cyborg's arm twisted and shifted. Forget the sonic cannon, the regrouping Lanceheads would get something better.

"My turn." He said. "_**FIRE."**_

And a gigantic whooshing noise filled the air as Cyborg activated the flamethrower, sweeping the burning mass over the Lanceheads as they ignited and screamed. Normally Cyborg would have only used this against non-human opponents. But normal had long taken a holiday. This was pure survival now, and besides, the Lanceheads could always run into the ocean.

And there was the fact this choice of tactics would keep Cyborg up at night. Could the reverse be said?

And so Cyborg blasted another sweeping gout of flame out, as Lanceheads burned and fled into the waters.

Even as Scalpel tossed his opponent to join his brethren and turned his efforts back to the gun pod, as he wrenched it out like its brother pod. A River Jack filled with reinforcement Lanceheads never made it to the beach, as the pod was hurled into their boat, sending more Lanceheads and Blackadders violently into the water.

* * *

"Situation is beginning to be stalled!" The 3rd minion at the banks of the computer organization center said.

"UNACCEPTABLE! INCREASE THE PRESSURE!" The Organizer screamed, furious at how quickly things had reversed. "Get the Naga elite down on the ground to aid their lesser brethren! And launch the Diamondback weapon systems! Bring the _Divine Scar's_ main cannons online! Destroy our enemies, lest our master destroy us!"

* * *

Robin charged in with a yell, twirling his staff as he swung it at King Snake, only for the villain to catch it on his metal wrist protectors and deflect it. Robin spun away from him before he could counter and jabbed the staff again, but King Snake smacked it away from him with an open palm slap and with frightening speed turned the move into a backhand against Robin's face. Robin rolled with the blow, spun up, whirled his staff around, and then swung it down at King Snake.

The villain seized it and yanked Robin forward into a knee blow, driving the air from his lungs, and as Robin gasped King Snake did two light steps back and stood once more in a combat stance.

_He's toying with me…and he's anticipating my moves perfectly…is he really blind…_Robin said as he looked at King Snake. _Let's test it…_

And Robin reached for his utility belt even as he set his mask lenses to go completely black in four seconds, and then he hurled a Distraction Device at King Snake.

The powerful weapon exploded, the deafening noise only matched by the incredible flash of light: it shone brighter then the sun.

And when it faded, King Snake still stood there, unaffected: he didn't even seem bothered by the immensely loud noise. _Damn!_

Robin yanked back his staff and then swung it out as it elongated, the metal length now long enough to catch King Snake in the legs. But King Snake just did a small, graceful jump over it…even as another Birdarang went whirling at his head.

King Snake didn't just stop it. He spun and KICKED IT BACK AT ROBIN.

Robin nearly got brained by his own weapon, he was so surprised. He blinked at the master martial artist.

"Try again?"

Robin growled and raced in again, leaping and kicking at King Snake through the air, thinking maybe he was reading his footsteps.

Wrong, as King Snake's arm slashed out and deflected Robin's foot, and even as Robin's body began to twist from that motion King Snake's leg slashed up and kicked Robin the back, sending him flying back the way he'd come. Robin landed on his hands, flipped, and leapt back at King Snake, swinging his staff in a wide arc.

King Snake ducked under it, and even as he did his leg curled up and out from behind him, slamming his heel into Robin's face in a perfect scorpion kick.

Robin flew backwards once more and crashed to the ground, his staff clattering next to him. Blood began to flow from his forehead as he stared at King Snake, whose style he simply couldn't seem to crack.

"You're unworthy of your position. Unworthy of this all. I will turn it all to ruin, just for this insult." King Snake said.

Hot fury spiked through Robin, and he leapt to his feet and charged again, attacking rapidly with his staff. But King Snake deflected all the blows effortlessly, like Robin was moving in slow motion.

King Snake was doing no such thing, as he smacked Robin's staff down and seized him by the throat.

"And instead of rising to the occasion with such a challenge, you wallow in rage. Pathetic." King Snake said, and headbutted Robin. The teen staggered back, blood fountaining from his nose, and King Snake caught him right in the chest with a thrust kick before he could recover, sending him crashing to the ground again.

"I came expecting the best. Provide it!" King Snake snapped, his good spirits gone, as if he was offended by Robin's efforts.

"Be careful…what you wish for…" Robin growled, as he wiped his face, spun his staff behind him, and attacked once more.

* * *

Fire blazed through the air, and explosions rocked the earth, as the island defenses began to get overwhelmed by the sheer force being hammered against them and the Titans desperately fought to hold the tide…

* * *

And on one of the battlefronts...Gauntlet sat on a pile of defeated Blackadder ninjas, looking none the worse for wear save for some scuff marks from fighting.

"Wow, that was an AWESOME fight scene! I pity the fool who missed it!" Gauntlet said, as he produced a bottle of water from somewhere and took a drink. "Well, guess I'm done."

"AHEM." Came an annoyed voice behind him, and Gauntlet turned to see a new mass of ninjas at the ready, even more numerous then the previous group.

"...crap." Gauntlet muttered. "For crying out loud, are you SURE you aren't Hydra?"

The Blackadders stared, this new group unsure of what he meant.

"You know, Hydra! Cut off a limb and two more will take it's place?"

"...god, you are SUCH a nerd." One Blackadder said.

"And _you're dead_." Another added with strange intensity.

"Oh yeah? WELL YOU'RE A WOMAN! SO WHAT!" Gauntlet yelled, and smashed several Blackadders with a Gauntlet battering ram. Shrieking and slashing katana's, more leapt at him...and crashed into each other as Gauntlet jumped away.

He still found himself surrounded again.

"Can we talk?"

The Blackadders bumrushed Gauntlet, burying him beneath their numbers. Unlike Cyborg, Gauntlet didn't even have to fight his way out, as he popped up outside the attacking mass and looked with interest as the Blackadders pounded on nothing.

"My lord, they really don't make them like they used to-ACK!" Gauntlet yelped as the Blackadders heard him and swarmed once more.

"Okay let's try this. MY FIST IN YOUR FACE NO JUTSU!"

This "ninja art" proved itself considerably more effective.

* * *

As did Savior's dashing attack, as he ran up to a Lancehead and then UP the Lancehead, slamming a few quick repeated stomp kicks onto the Kobra grunt before he leapt off, the grunt collapsing behind him. A new group of Lanceheads charged, firing machine guns, and Savior cursed and cowered behind some Shimmer shields.

As a mass of bats swarmed onto the attackers, biting wherever they could find a hole, as the Kobra soldiers yelled and screamed. As the troops flailed about, Savior took advantage of the brief confusion and slammed his hands into the ground, as Shimmer lines lanced into the ground and back up into the air, balled ends slamming into Kobra faces and knocking them senseless.

The bats flew down and reformed into Morgue as Savior pulled his lines back to him...as a Copperhead strafed the pair.

Sophie introduced the helicopter to her own rifle, and she proved more accurate as the machine lurched away and then crashed as its main rotor broke off.

Sophie's gun clicked empty, and she tossed it down with a low curse.

"You only had one clip?" Savior said incredulously.

"You made me waste the rest in training yesterday!"

"I..." Savior said...as twin Copperheads came to replace the one. "Oops."

Savior threw up another Shimmer shield, growling as the heavy-caliber bullets slammed into it. As the Copperheads flew by and began turning for another pass, Savior saw more paratroopers on the way down...and a River Jack heading to a nearby stretch of beach with even more of them, guarded by twin Cottonmouths.

Savior glanced at Morgue, who blinked behind her mask. Well, they hadn't put the girl through said hellish training so she could cower when left on her own. Savior made a few quick hand signals and Sophie nodded.

"Try not to get killed."

"You too." Sophie said, as Savior seized the large girl and with a mighty heave hurled her skyward, directly at the attacking Copperheads.

As Sophie split into a mass of bats again, the keening creatures swarming around one of the helicopters, as the pilot yelled and tried to get away. The gunner pulled out a personal sidearm and began firing into the mass, and grinned fiercely as the bats flew off immediately. He was about to indicate to his partner helicopter to finish them off when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

A moment later Savior hurled both the screaming pilot and gunner out of the machine, having jumped aboard while Morgue distracted them. Seizing the main firearm, Savior opened fire on the other Copperhead and blew it out of the sky, as Shimmer strands streamed out of his body and seized the helicopter's controls. He didn't really know how to fly the machine, but he didn't need to fly it. He just had to crash it, as he lurched the aircraft towards the beach where the three boats were attempting to land, strafing at the Cottonmouths with his gun as best he could. The motorboats veered off, and Savior grinned nastily...and then yanked the stick of the Copperhead down.

The men inside the River Jack could only scream as the aircraft nosedived, crashing into the troop boat and sending both up in a ball of flame, as the Lanceheads aboard the Cottonmouths cursed and tried to find Savior.

One group found him almost immediately, as he landed on their boat. One Shimmer lash sent everyone on board flying into the water as Savior seized the boat's controls. Again, he had no real idea how to drive the thing. But he knew enough to aim it at the other Cottonmouth, as the motor boat completed its turn and found its brother boat lancing right at it.

The explosion of that collision sent Lanceheads flying and slamming into the water, as Savior landed back on shore. He grunted, cracked his neck, and then leapt towards new targets.

Morgue, on the other hand, swarmed towards the descending paratroopers, a fact they saw coming as they opened fire on her. Morgue attempted cover as she manifested on one, punching him in the face as she clung to him...and gasped as the troopers immediately turned their attack onto their fellow, murdering him in cold blood to try and get Sophie.

They didn't, and with hot rage at their callousness shooting through her veins, Sophie made sure they never did, as she leapt and transformed for a few scant seconds, just enough to get some altitude.

Then she turned back and plummeted downward, smashing through one Lancehead's parachute and landing on his body, and even as he went into freefall she pushed off and leapt to the side, shoulder ramming another paratrooper before she swarmed away, leaping between the descending paratroopers so they couldn't shoot her without hitting themselves. If she couldn't slam into her target, she made sure her passing left them with a hole in their parachutes. Within ten seconds all of their descents had been compromised, and as the last of them smacked into the ground Sophie flew up as bats and reformed in the air, looking down at her work.

She should have scanned for targets.

The Death Adder buzzed her so closely it was a miracle Sophie didn't get cut in half, but the slipstream smacked her like a giant whip and sent her plummeting towards the ground in turn. Tumbling awkwardly and her mind awash in vertigo, Sophie tried but failed to become bats to arrest her fall, as she thudded into the ground and battle-scarred sand of the beach, skidding a few feet before stopping.

A few seconds passed before Sophie pushed herself up, shaking her head. Maybe all that learning to fall stuff had merit...

As the returning Death Adder launched a missile at her fallen form.

"Oh damn..." Morgue cursed, as she broke into her best sprint. She couldn't turn into bats, she'd never get far away enough and the shockwave from the explosion would annihilate the bat's fragile bodies, she had to RUN...!

The explosion blasted behind Sophie, sending her flying as her spine wrenched painfully and hot sand and metal peppered her rear before she crashed back down to earth, or sand.

A few more seconds passed before Sophie rose, her muscles complaining as one as she did so. For a moment she envied the dead: they didn't have to worry about these things.

But such was life, and the worries kept on coming, as twin Lanceheads on jetpacks dropped from the sky, screaming the usual "KOBRA!" and swinging electrified nightsticks at Sophie.

Unfortunately, the main attacker flew too low. Which put his testicles right in line with Sophie's fist. As the poor Lancehead screamed in pain, Morgue darted around him, yanking him down and grabbing his tazer-wielding arm as she jammed it into the other attacker. As said attacker collapsed to the ground, twitching, Sophie chopped the first one in the throat, stole his tazer off of him, and gave him a taste of it as well. He joined his fellow on the ground.

And THIS time, Sophie saw the plane coming, as she dove down and hid behind some rocks as bullets raked the ground where she'd been. Looking up, she saw the plane fly out and begin to turn around, and her eyes flicked back to the fallen Lanceheads, and their jetpacks.

A few math equations whizzed through her head as she yanked off both jetpacks, even as the plane started heading back towards her.

"Your friends dropped something!" Morgue yelled, as she carefully aimed both packs with her arms...as a pair of bats emerged and flicked their ignition switches.

The packs blazed through the air, and without their riders, they served well as improvised missiles, as they flew up and into the engines of the Death Adder, the wings exploding as it flew over Sophie's head and crashed on the other end of the island.

"...I want to say they had a blast, but that's really too obvious." Morgue commented.

"It comes easier with practice." Savior said as he touched down by Sophie. "How about 'the bombs bursting in air'?"

"You're made of terrible."

"Yes, let's convince our enemies of that." Savior said, as more paratroopers began to land.

Then they landed again. On their asses.

* * *

And as her fellows fought furiously on the ground, Terra flew through the sky above them, manipulating the rock platform she was on, changing the shape into that of a stalactite with a ring of stones whirling around the top, where she and Starfire sat in a divot, providing cover from the gatling fire the latest batch of Copperheads were spewing.

Terra gritted her teeth and sent the orbiting rocks out, slamming into any nearby attackers, while Starfire fired at the more distant ones, trying to avoid blowing the copters up completely. More jet pack-equipped Lanceheads charged at them, dodging and weaving through Terra's rock defenses with alarming grace and agility.

* * *

As Raven weaved through the firepower of one of the defense cannons was spewing, but even as she tried to mount a defense she saw a missile heading for her. She barely managed to teleport away before the projectile slammed into the laser weapon, saving her the trouble. But Raven, even as she reappeared a few feet away, knew she couldn't keep chipping away at the main ship like this. She had to…

Concentrate on staying alive, as a Death Adder zoomed past her, the wing nearby cutting her head right off as she tumbled through the air. So fast…

But not invincible, as Raven saw the plane make a tight turn to take another shot at her, and Raven had an idea, as she flew backwards.

Her speed couldn't come close to the Death Adder though, as it screamed at her. A bead of sweat ran down Raven's brow…

Its cannons opened fire.

Bullets tore through the air around Raven and even punched a few holes in her cloak.

And she warped away, the pilot flying through a fading cloud of dark power…

And right into the shots of the second defense cannon Raven had baited, the friendly fire blowing the plane out of the sky.

Raven repaid the favor by smashing it with a dark energy claw. But she had to do more. She couldn't teleport inside: she'd already sensed the field (and she was somewhat surprised she was able to get this close: that aspect of the field must have been kept right beneath 'the skin', as it were). Maybe she should make another try at…

And then she heard it, and her skin suddenly grew cold.

"Oh no."

* * *

"I can't get them!" Terra shouted, straining to keep up what she was doing and trying to fend off the jet-pack wielding Lanceheads, and not having the presence of mind to add anything else to the equation for very long.

"Allow me!" Starfire braced herself against the side of the rock-bunker and blasted at them with a stream of eyebeams, catching several of the Lanceheads in their jetpack straps with predicable results.

But two made it past the twin streams of energy, and even as they did they each pulled a pair of grenades from their belts.

"For Kobra!" the one on the right shouted.

Starfire shouted something in Tamaranean, loud enough to hurt Terra's ears, then threw herself off the platform and smashed her fist into the face of one of the soldiers, then twisted sideways and kneed the other in the stomach. Both Kobra members dropped their grenades, which fell into rotors of approaching Copperheads below and exploded, even as the defeated pair fell towards the sea in another direction.

Starfire turned back to Terra and smiled, giving the Markovian a thumbs up…

* * *

Raven tried, but she was too slow…

* * *

As Terra's breath caught in her throat when a massive beam of teal energy slammed into Starfire from Terra's peripheral vision, blasting the alien princess across the sky, out of Terra's field of vision.

"KORY!" Terra screamed. She immediately turned, hurling everything she had in the direction the attack had come from, smashing up several attackers but not the one that had hit Starfire; to Terra's horror, she realized that the shot had come from one of the huge snake-shaped turret atop the main battleship.

The beam came again, and Terra dodged to the left, then juked to the right, retreating away from the Kobra mastership as she flew, heading down toward Starfire. Terra kept waiting for the next shot, but it never came. _Out of range?_ Tara pondered.

In actuality, Raven was hammering away at the turret with powerful force energy blasts, but while she twisted and dented the weapon, she seemed unable to disable it, and before she could muster up enough strength to rip it from its moorings she found herself assaulted by dozens of Kobra defense troops, forcing her to retreat.

Terra was oblivious to this, as she swooped down towards the ocean, finding Starfire drifting against the floating wreckage of one of Kobra's boats.

"Are you alright!?" Tara shouted, using a swarm of tiny pebbles she'd scattered through the air as a radar to tell if anyone was sneaking up behind her.

Starfire climbed onto the rock platform weakly, shuddering as water dripped off of her. "I feel as though my lerquads were inserted into a mugford." The alien coughed up water and shuddered again.

Then her breath caught, horror filling Star's eyes for a split second, and even as Terra tried to react a Cottonmouth surged past them, the Lancehead on board aiming at the two…

Terra threw up a rock shield.

Which proved ineffective as the Lancehead fired the gas grenade, the noxious chemical mist exploding against the shield and washing over Starfire and Terra, and even as Terra tried to call out the darkness came, and then there was nothing.

* * *

The River Jack exploded into pieces as Beast Boy reared up as an extinct Megalodon shark and seized it in his teeth, shredding it and sending the Kobra troops swimming for their lives, as he turned and swam back towards his section of beach, which was seeing a few more stragglers trying to land.

Beast Boy butted one in the back as a mountain ram, then slammed into another one at crotch level as a tapir, stomping on their head before turning into an eagle and flying over another before transforming into a walrus and flattening the Lancehead beneath his bulk.

As a hatch on top of the Anaconda opened, and a Lancehead emerged to deal with the 'problem' on top of the vehicle that had wrecked it's offensive capabilities. Unfortunately for him, the 'problem' had big ears and was standing in front of the hatch when it opened.

The nearest Cottonmouth got a big surprise as the Lancehead "dropped" in on it, causing it to swerve and crash onto the shore, as Scalpel slammed the hatch down and dug his claws into the metal, wrenching the sides of the hatch opening and creating a makeshift lock. The Lanceheads trapped inside, Scalpel stood up...and cursed as a Copperhead blasted at him, sending him diving for protection.

Cyborg took care of it, as a sonic cannon blast blew the Copperhead into the ocean. But in that timeframe, a River Jack had landed, disgorging its contents onto the shore. Cyborg began firing at the new Lanceheads...as three more Copperheads zoomed in, forcing Cyborg to take cover as he was attacked on two fronts at once.

As Scalpel stood up, his eyes narrowing at the tactic. They wanted to play that way...?

Cyborg fired off a few quick shots, but he couldn't aim properly with all the firepower directed at him, and all he did was scare one of the Copperheads off, while the other two Copperheads were repositioning themselves to get around his...

As a Lancehead pilot screamed as his field of vision suddenly filled with Scalpel, who'd leapt off the Anaconda.

And was completing his baseball swing. The helicopter tore through the air sideways and crashed into it's fellow, both of them tumbling to the ground and exploding behind Scalpel as he landed.

Cyborg grinned wickedly, and fired two more shots at the landing Lanceheads, kicking the sand up in front of them before Scalpel dashed past, giving him a thumbs up. Getting the message, Cyborg returned it and turned to deal with the remaining Copperhead as it returned.

Only to find it had brought four friends with it.

"OHSHI...!" Cyborg yelled as he ran for it, as two helicopters blasted the ground with missiles before the remaining three chased Cyborg, their side guns blazing.

As the Lanceheads tried to recover themselves from the sand blast...as Scalpel's glaive swung out and sent two Lanceheads flying into the sea, causing a Cottonmouth to jerk violently to the side and almost collide with another River Jack, which swerved in turn...right into the eager "hands" of Beast Boy as he swooped down as a bluebird before turning into a hippopotamus and smashing through the River Jack.

Another glaive swing smashed a Lancehead back into the River Jack, knocking over his companions as another Lancehead charged at Scalpel with a knife. Scalpel just sidestepped him and backhanded him as he ran past, slamming him into the sand. Another tried to get his gun aimed at Scalpel: Scalpel cut the weapon in half and spun, kicking the Lancehead into the distance.

As a psychotically screaming Lancehead ran out of the River Jack, holding aloft two primed grenades...

As Scalpel spun once more and baseball-smashed him back into the landing boat, and with a muttered curse leapt away as the grenades went off inside it.

"Idiot." Scalpel muttered as he got up...and the three remaining Lanceheads came for him.

Cyborg was having less luck, as he took cover behind some rocks moments before the pursuing Copperheads raked them with bullets. He cursed under his breath.

"Keep him pinned down! Spread out!" One of the pilots ordered, as the Copperheads began to do just that. If Cyborg got one or two of them with his cannon, the others would just blast him to pieces then. Strength in numbers was the tactic of Scalpel's foes as well, as they all furiously attacked him with heavy clubs.

Out at sea, a dazed Lancehead in his Cottonmouth boat sat up, confused momentarily at the fact he was alone, before he realized all his fellows had flown out of the boat when that alien infidel had thrown two of their number at him. And who was STILL fending off his fellows, the Lancehead said, as suicidal craziness abruptly filled the fanatic's mind. He would make the heretic pay for his defiance, as he swung the Cottonmouth around...

As Scalpel caught all three clubs on his glaive, and with a fierce grin gave it a quick spin, knocking all the weapons out of the Lancehead's hands as he took a step back...

And tossed the weapon at the Lanceheads, the glaive falling horizontally into their confused hands...

As Scalpel ran and kicked the weapon, and the three went flying backwards, tumbling across the sand from the impact.

As Cyborg peered over his cover, trying to assess his combat options...and saw it in the corner of his eye: Scalpel walking away from the tide...as a Cottonmouth tore through the water directly at him.

"NIGE-!" Cyborg tried to scream, before a blast of bullets swallowed his words and forced him behind cover, as he cursed again and armed his sonic cannon...

Smirking to himself, Scalpel walked over and kicked his weapon back into his hand...as his ears twitched.

Cyborg reared up, aiming for the boat...as a missile exploded in front of him and sent him sprawling on his back.

As Scalpel whirled around, as the Cottonmouth hit the beach at max speed, throwing it up into the air...and down onto Scalpel's form. Cyborg screamed as the boat crashed down on the alien, the Lancehead flying out and slamming into the ground to meet his own messy end as the boat dragged itself along the beach even as it fragmented.

"...that is IT." Cyborg snarled as he stood up, as his mechanical eye whirred and scanned, locking onto the Copperheads as his sonic cannon transformed back into his normal setup.

"He's out in the open! Shred him!" One of the pilots yelled.

"Talk to the hand." Cyborg growled, as he aimed his right arm at the nearest Copperhead and launched, his forearm flying off as twin jets extracted from each side and ignited.

The Copperhead pilot abruptly found himself getting a good close look at Cyborg's fist. Which was giving him the finger.

And then it smashed through the cockpit and out the other end of the Copperhead, and as the miniature helicopter crashed the flying arm turned and smashed off the tail of the next Copperhead, then ducked and flew through the payload of missiles on the third, detonating them on the machine as the fist swooped back up and spun in a rapid rotation. The makeshift drill sheered through the main rotor of the fourth helicopter, as the whirling blades flew off and ripped through the last Copperhead, slicing it clean in half. The vehicles smashed down onto the beaches as Cyborg's arm returned to him and snapped back on.

"You bring it, I bring it bigger." Cyborg said, and then ran over to the broken boat, hoping that the worst hadn't...

The clawed hand erupted from the wreckage when Cyborg was a dozen feet away, and Cyborg felt great relief as Scalpel pulled himself out from beneath the shattered watercraft.

"Scalpel! Are you...hurt..." Cyborg said as he got close enough for the alien to look him in the eye...which was filled with blistering fury. Cyborg stopped, remembering the constant out of control rage one of Scalpel's enemies, the White Hole, an alien of his species, had been in. That same rage was now burning in Scalpel's eyes.

Kobra couldn't see it though, as bullets and laser blasts began shooting the pair's way: the Anaconda had managed to get one of its cannons working again, and Lanceheads had taken up positions up and around it to fire at the two. And damn, was that another door opening on the side? There were MORE troops inside? What the...

"I'VE. HAD. _**ENOUGH**_." Scalpel snarled.

Hell. Hell was in Scalpel's eyes, as he jerked his glaive up from beneath the wreckage and turned, his caustic blood splattering on the wrecked boat and hissing as he whirled the glaive and then hurled it through the air.

It slammed into the side of the Anaconda, the blade shearing right through the vehicle's armor and impaling itself a foot and a half into the side. Cyborg blinked. Had Scalpel been aiming to pin the new opening door shut and miss? Because...

"RAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Scalpel bellowed, as he ripped through the boat's remains and charged full tilt at the Anaconda. Cyborg goggled at the suicide charge: what the hell what Nigel thinking? He'd get shot this way!

So Cyborg made sure he didn't, as he aimed and fired at the Lanceheads around the Anaconda, shooting them down before they could shoot Scalpel, as the alien dodged the combat fire like he weighed a few ounces instead of several hundred pounds and closed in on the Anaconda, smacking a Lancehead aside with a brief gesture...that sent said Lancehead flying nearly 20 feet as Scalpel reached his glaive.

And both grabbed and pushed it, shoving the weapon and his right arm all the way up to the shoulder into the Anaconda. Cyborg shot down another Lancehead as it tried to draw a bead on the alien and once again wondered what the hell Nigel was doing.

Then Scalpel bellowed again in sheer blood-crazed battle fury, and Cyborg knew.

"...no WAY..." Cyborg said.

As with one mighty wrenching motion, Scalpel actually LIFTED the Anaconda, hoisting the vehicle up using his glaive as a crude lever and bringing every single inch of his maddened superhuman alien strength to the fore as he hoisted the 70-ton vehicle up and off the beach as a few surprised Lanceheads fell off, screaming their horror.

As Beast Boy klonked two Lancehead heads together as a chimpanzee...and saw the hoist as well. His jaw dropped.

As with one final scream, Scalpel somehow found the additional strength to do two complete spins before he hurled the Anaconda through the air.

"...gah." Was all Cyborg could say.

As the machine crashed back down to earth, rolling and ripping itself apart as it tumbled, before it came to rest several dozen feet away, a smoking broken wreck.

"...duddddddddddde." Beast Boy said.

Scalpel lowered his arms, his glaive fallen broken at his feet, his shoulders slumped and the wind tossing his hair as his arms hung limp.

"...YEAH MAN! YOU'RE THE MAN! WAHOO!" Cyborg cheered. It wasn't the smartest move, but as a former football player and die-hard competitor Cyborg had to give the alien his props.

Cyborg's celebration was short-lived.

As Scalpel collapsed on the beach.

And as they suddenly came raining down from the sky, giant metal balls that slammed into the sand and rock, leaving craters the size of swimming pools.

"What the…!" Cyborg said.

And then they exploded out, giant robotic snakes, nearly twice as big as Cyborg himself, red blazing eyes over a mouth filled with giant metal fangs, as a robotic hiss issued forth from their mouths.

"Oh crud." Cyborg said.

* * *

"Diamondbacks are released. All operative."

"Good. MAXIMUM AGGRESSION!"

* * *

"OH CRAP! AH!" Cyborg yelled as he dodged away from the first attacking robot snake, the Diamondback...as another slammed into him, biting down on his torso as Cyborg screamed and brought his hand down, smashing through the thing's head and ripping it off of him. That gave the first time to come back around and lunge once more, as Cyborg turned and leapt back, the thing's head burying itself in the sand as Cyborg stomped on it. But as he did that, two more came, as their mouths opened and fire exploded from within, blasting Cyborg with twin blasts of deadly flame, Cyborg recoiling from the attack as he snarled, his shoulders snapping up and returning fire with a spray of mini missiles that blew the robot snakes to pieces.

As another came down from above, Cyborg's head disappearing into its gullet as its metal fangs sank into his chest, Cyborg's scream echoing in a muffled cry from within.

* * *

Rob was starting to get tired. While the Gauntlet greatly enhanced his endurance, he could only use it at full tilt for so long.

"Great. Now I gotta fight sensibly. DAMN YOU, MASSES OF FACELESS MINIONS! THIS FIGHT IS GOING TO GET BORING!" Gauntlet yelled.

"KILL HIM! FOR KOBRA!" Was the reply, as kunai flew and swords slashed. They didn't trouble Gauntlet much, newfound (and greatly begrudged) sense of frugality aside.

"Okay, so I gotta ask. Is there some sort of ninja academy, or do you guys come from a factory?"

"We are the elite deathdealers of the new world order! Your end will be agonizing for your disrespect!"

"Yes yes, blah blah blah." Gauntlet said as he smashed two Blackadders away with a Gauntlet fist. "Do you know how many times I've been threatened with death?"

"How often have you been threatened with death by an army of ninjas?" One of the Blackadders asked as he and four others came down from the air, their weapons slashing and spinning. Two seconds later they all crash-landed, victims of a spin defense that would have done Neji Hyuga proud.

"More often than you'd imagine."

"WELL THIS WILL BE THE LAST TIME!" Another yelled as he leapt at Gauntlet with a trident. Gauntlet grabbed him and threw him into some of his fellows.

"Really? You're going to talk to all of the other ninja hordes for me? That'd be swell! So, how do I get put on this 'do not attack' list?"

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" A random Blackadder screamed, and more attacking ninjas and thrown weapons headed Gauntlet's way.

"Rats. It was a long shot, but I could only hope..." Gauntlet said as he bashed the attackers away. "But y'know, I gotta admire your dedication, ninja hordes. I salute you! With punches!"

And more Blackadders went flying...as a lone kunai finally found the right angle and spot, slashing Gauntlet on the arm.

"HEY! OW! OW OW OW!' Gauntlet yelled, grabbing the injured area.

"NOW!" Came a cry, and a gigantic wave of deadly weapons was hurled at Gauntlet.

Boof.

There was now a Gauntlet yellow energy approximation of a piece of wood there, which had taken all the attacks.

_**LOGG'D!**_

"...that is not a substitution! He just stepped back and made a roundabout shield! You can see him through it!" One of the Blackadders pointed out.

Gauntlet looked at the speaker for a second...and then swung the Gauntlet log out on a yellow line and smashed it through the ninja hordes.

_**PLANK'D!**_

* * *

And speaking of planks, Scalpel felt like someone was slamming him repeatedly in the head with one the size of Kobra's main air-battlecraft. From the inside of his head, at that.

It was why he had always been disliked if not hated by his species, as Scalpel tried to get up, his whole body in even more pain then his head, if that was possible. He didn't like the red fugue, the insane battle rage. Maybe it let you do things beyond you (calm, Scalpel would have been able to turn the Anaconda over, at best), but it completely robbed you of any reason. And in his mighty toss, Scalpel may have destroyed the Anaconda, but he'd also destroyed himself, exhausting every bit of strength he had and ripping apart most of the muscles in his upper body.

And now the piper was calling, for while many Kobra minions had been disabled or defeated, not all of them had. And now the remnants were coming, pulling themselves from the water or the ground, smelling blood.

Scalpel looked up at their approach...and despite it all, he pushed himself to his feet, causing them briefly to recoil. And then, despite it all again, Scalpel gestured for them to bring it.

And they did, as they charged and attacked. Scalpel smashed the first several away and inflicted agonizing cuts on several more, but it was ultimately futile, as a tazer blast seized up his body. And then they were on him, raining down blows and shocking him again and again.

Scalpel still knocked three of them out before the blackness claimed him. And never once did he ask or show an iota of mercy.

He may have hated war, but for what he believed in, there was no finer soldier then Nigel Hastings.

The saddest part was, his opponents were too deluded to ever realize that.

* * *

As Morgue, shooting down two Lanceheads with her personal tranquilizer guns, suddenly felt a deep chill run through her.

"...what the hell was that?" She said, mostly to herself as Savior slammed another Lancehead into the ground.

"Knowing our luck, a terrible thing." He replied.

As the orb fell from the sky.

"GAH! What the hell was that?!" Morgue said as she looked at where the Diamondback had crashed down near her.

"Something else. Likely also terrible." Savior said, as Sophie aimed at it.

Only to have it rear up, the Diamondback uttering an alien robotic snarl. Morgue, despite herself, screamed.

And that made Savior act instinctively, as he dove and slammed into the robot before it could attack Morgue, struggling with the creature as it shrieked.

* * *

"AYYYYYYYYAHHHHHH!" Beast Boy screamed as the Diamondback that had landed near _him_ leapt, fire exploding from its mouth. Beast Boy avoided being flambéd by turning into all things, a rabbit, as the fire and the Diamondback flew over him.

Beast Boy turned back into a human, looking ticked off.

"All right, you wanna jump me? Think you're scary?" Beast Boy said, and turned into a T-Rex. "SCARIER!"

The Diamondback blasted fire at Beast Boy again, but his thick hide mostly protected him, and Beast Boy ignored the pain in his rush of adrenaline as he lunged and seized the metal snake, crushing its mass beneath his teeth, and before it could spring some other nasty surprise on him Beast Boy pivoted and sent the Diamondback hurling through the air.

"Yeah!" Beast Boy said, turning back to human form…and spitting at the foul taste that filled his mouth…

As the Diamondback crashed into a passing Copperhead and exploded, and the flaming wreckage plummeted towards the island…

Directly at Beast Boy, who saw the shadow fall over him and jerked his head up.

"AYYYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The wreckage crashed down on top of the changeling and exploded anew, burning fuel spraying everywhere, oily black smoke belching from a dozen places. For a moment, it was eerily quiet.

Then a form popped out of the wreckage and rolled away, as Beast Boy transformed back from a scorched armadillo, amazed he had escaped…but not without cost, as his dull eyes and slurred speech indicated.

"Hey mannnnn….no fare….I was…k'ckin but…" Beast Boy mumbled, and then fell on his face, unconscious.

* * *

As Raven tore apart another Copperhead, only to find three more coming, the damn things were endless, and she couldn't see Starfire and Terra anywhere, what was going…

And then she saw it, as the main cannons began to light up again. This time, it was both of them.

"NO." She declared, and flew forward, gathering all the power she could, ignoring the shots that streaked past her as she reached out and seized the three Copperheads, and with a scream she sent them all smashing into the snake cannons, the machines smashing and tearing through them…

But they did not stop, as Raven's eyes widened. She looked at them, and then looked back, roughly calculating their firing direction…

And realized they would shoot right in the middle of where Savior, Morgue, and Gauntlet were making their defense.

"NO!" She thundered, as she flew backwards. If she couldn't stop the cannons, then she'd damn well stop the shot, as she called upon all her power, forming the most powerful shield she could, because not one of her friends was ever getting hurt by her negligence and failings ever AGAIN…!

And the cannons fired.

A massive explosion rocked the sky, and a black streak flew back from it, as Raven's smoking form crashed into Titan Island like a bullet. She did not get back up, her cataleptic form impacted into the rock she'd hit, the remaining traces of her powers the only reason she hadn't been pulped into hamburger.

* * *

Robin's fist was brushed aside by King Snake's blocking forearm, as King Snake again rammed a knee into Robin's torso, sending him stumbling back. Robin gasped, and then charged in again, lancing his staff at King Snake. The master of Kobra slapped it aside and spun with the motion, slamming his elbow into the back of Robin's head. Strange colors exploded in Robin's vision, and he lurched drunkenly, trying to turn around and defend himself…as King Snake snatched the staff from his hands and then kicked Robin in the chest again, knocking him down.

"I grow bored of this." King Snake said, tossing the staff aside.

For a moment, Robin almost crossed the line, almost reached into his utility belt and pulled out one of his disc weapons. He doubted King Snake could deflect an explosion.

…but he didn't. Because Robin had no guarantee he would survive. And Robin could not take a life when it could be avoided. For all the ways the Titans had destroyed the attackers on their islands, they had tried their very best not to kill if they could. They hadn't succeeded, but they'd TRIED. And Robin wouldn't now, not this way. He'd be as bad as King Snake if he did, and worse, because he knew better.

So instead Robin took to his feet, trying to find his senses…as King Snake charged with a yell, leaping at Robin.

Robin started to dodge…

As King Snake abruptly tucked into a roll, hit the ground, rolled, and sprang onto his feet right at Robin's legs as he ducked and lashed out with a leg, swiping Robin's feet out from under him as Robin crashed painfully to the ground. Robin gasped, blood flecking the roof of the tower…and then jerked away as King Snake leapt up from his crouch and tried to stomp on Robin. Robin pushed himself back up, and then King Snake was attacking him, swinging his leg at Robin and then whirling and swinging his other, and even as Robin tried to dodge those King Snake closed in and snapped off a furious combination of punches. Robin blocked two before the third one slammed into his shoulder and disabled his arm: the next two were blocked solely with his face, which as you might have guessed, was not a good way to do it.

Robin hit the ground again, and as he looked up at King Snake the maniac grinned and licked Robin's blood off his knuckles.

The righteous fury surged through Robin again, and he leapt up and once again attacked.

A seemingly futile effort, as King Snake blocked every blow.

* * *

Savior wasn't much better off, as he was trying to avoid having his face chewed off by a giant metal snake.

"SUNNUVA…!" Savior cursed as he grappled with the Diamondback, as it reared back and lunged, its teeth going for Savior's shoulder and neck.

Shimmer lines sprang out and stopped the teeth mere inches from Savior's tender flesh, and he snarled as the creature writhed, trying to wrap around him even as it bit him…

Savior used its momentum against it, flipping the robotic creature over as he fell backwards onto the ground.

Only to find the Diamondback was even faster then he anticipated, as it recovered quicker then him and lunged its tail at him, as a whirring drill fired up and tried to perform some impromptu dentistry on the white-haired teenager, as he cursed and rolled furiously, trying to outrun the drill.

"Damn it! Why didn't I pack some explosive...!" Morgue cursed as she watched Savior wrestle with the machine.

As she heard the thuds behind her, and she whirled, fear blooming in her: if there were more of those devices...

There weren't. What it was was almost as bad, as the giant rose from his kneeling position, even as another giant landed nearby. The elite Naga troops had finally arrived on the field, so big and muscular they could be dropped without parachutes: their bodies barely seemed fazed by the impacts. The closer muscleman turned cold eyes on Sophie, as he extracted and ignited a plasma axe.

"...flesh and blood." Morgue said, and to the Naga's surprise she charged at it.

The surprise turned into amusement, as the giant swung his deadly weapon.

Into a cloud of bats, which swiftly flew up and reformed into Morgue as the giant looked up at the black-clad female...as she emptied a whole clip of tranqs into the Naga's face. The sheer amount of sedative hit the giant like a wrecking ball, as he lurched back and then fell, Sophie riding him down into the ground.

"You got something to say?" Sophie snarled as she turned to the other one.

The giant hefted a portable missile launcher at her.

"...that's actually a very firm argument."

Savior sprang to his feet, and then yelled and dodged to the side as a tongue of flame caught and scorched his jacket, and he snarled in renewed rage as the Diamondback landed nearby, immediately zeroed on him, and leapt.

Savior didn't dodge this one.

Instead he reached out and sent Shimmer strands firing out, the points lancing into the Diamondback and stopping it a foot from Savior, and while the machine seemed to briefly hover in the air Savior fired off a punch with his other arm, slamming it into the Diamondback's mouth as the Shimmer tore through the innards of the creature and ripped it apart from the inside.

"Too bad I can't make you into a pair of boots." Savior said, and turned around.

And walked right into the chest of the giant. He reared back, his eyes filling with alarm, as the giant laughed and swung out.

The blow knocked Savior backwards, but he quickly regained his balance as he glared at the Naga, clad in his vicious looking armor.

At least that Naga was unarmed. Sophie's wasn't, as it aimed at the woman...

As she ran for her life...towards the Naga. Like his fellow, the giant was caught by surprise, as Sophie turned into bats again...and swarmed through the giant's open legs. The Naga swung around, his finger curled on the trigger...

As Morgue reformed...right on top of his missile launcher. The sudden weight change caused the missile launcher to be abruptly pointed towards the ground.

It also caused the Naga to accidentally pull the trigger.

As Morgue immediately leapt off the weapon and turned into bats to fly up, just escaping the explosion's shockwave radius as the Naga flew backwards, his weapon bouncing away as he crashed backfirst onto the ground.

But even that didn't keep the giant down.

Morgue turning back and falling fifteen feet onto his face, feet first, did.

"So they're sending in the big ones now, eh? Fine, the bigger they are…" Savior said as he snatched up a hunk of rock and hurled it at the Naga.

The Naga punched it out of the air, and if that was a cue he roared to the heavens. Savior's eyes widened as he saw the giant's muscles bulging and shifting despite the armor, like the tissue was being charged with pure energy.

"That can't mean anything good."

The Naga charged at Savior.

"…the bigger they hit, damn!" Savior said, finishing his old line as he leapt backwards. He lashed the Naga with a Shimmer whip, but the giant barely seemed to feel it, as Savior again leapt backwards…

And was smashed into the ground by the giant club, his spine feeling like it was snapped in half as he impacted. Savior rolled over and saw he'd jumped right into the weapons range of another Naga…and another was coming. And another, and another.

Before Savior knew it, he was surrounded.

"…I hope the shrunken testes were worth it." Savior commented.

"KOBRA!" Yelled a Naga as he swung an energy axe at Savior. Savior leapt aside and fired off twin Shimmer bludgeons, crunching the knees of another Naga so Savior could leap over him and escape…

As another Naga aimed another four-tube missile launcher at him and fired all four.

The missiles struck the ground in front of him, the explosions blowing Savior several feet away as he crashed to the ground. And even as he started getting up, the Nagas once again surrounded him.

"Never did like snakes." Savior said, and lashed out with Shimmer lines, which were swiftly swallowed by the brutal pounding of the elite monsters.

"Oh no! Savior!" Morgue said, as she saw him get overwhelmed even as she slammed a new clip of ammo into her tranq pistol. "Hold on I'm coming...!"

A Naga not engaged with trying to subdue the white-haired teen cut her off, swinging a crackling electrified mace. And found Sophie wasn't as slow as she seemed, as she dodged under it and slammed her arm up, slamming her tranq pistol under the Naga's chin and firing a dart at point blank range, staggering the monster as she stole his weapon out of his stiffening hands and slammed it into his stomach, running onward as the monster crumpled...as another took aim at Sophie with a portable gatling cannon and opened fire. Morgue transformed and split apart, as the bullets shot down a few unfortunate Lanceheads and Blackadders, as Sophie's bats swarmed at the Naga's head, chewing at his eyes and blinding him as he staggered away, as the swarm collected and changed direction...

As the electrified net flew out and enveloped the mass of bats, the voltage slamming into their bodies and immediately convalescing them back into a screaming Sophie, who staggered around futilely trying to free herself before her brain was overwhelmed and she collapsed.

And as Morgue crashed to the ground, the Nagas split apart, revealing Savior's limp form at their feet.

* * *

"I've...got to say...I've...huff...never fought quite this many ninjas before...pant..." Gauntlet gasped as he looked as the seemingly endless Blackadders.

"KOBRA!" They all yelled, charging in.

"THAT'S IT! TIME FOR MY ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE!" Rob began to glow brightly, his force field's aura expanding.

The ninjas halted and staggered back, attempting to avoid the ever expanding force field. One of them gasped, "What have we unleashed?"

After a long moment, the field collapsed in upon itself and Rob was looking more normal again.

Except that the bulk of his force field had focused itself on his right foot.

"ATOMIC BOOT TO THE HEAD!"

_**KER-DEMENTO'D!**_

"Nyah nyah." Gauntlet said, looking at the masses of now fallen ninjas. "Ah, Ker. We meet again. Where else..." Gauntlet said as his eyes happened to wander onto a mass of gigantic steroid freaks...who happened to have Savior's broken form lying at their feet. "Oh hey Savior. I see you didn't do too well against your horde. Don't worry, I still have some gas in the old...Gauntlet tank..." Gauntlet said as his eyes fell on Sophie, netted and down as well. A quick scan of the battlefield brought no changes: every Titan Rob could see was down and out.

"What the...the whole team is down!? They lost to guys...that sucked too bad to be Cobra OR Hydra?" Gauntlet said, as his eyes flicked back and forth a few moments longer as he assessed. "No...NO! This can't be! Unless...they threw the fight? Yes, of course! It's the only logical explanation! This is part of some ingenious plan by Robin! We get kidnapped, granting us access to their deep inner sanctums of privacy! But wait...Occam's razor...isn't that overly complicated? But...the Titans wouldn't lose against these idiots! Therefore, the complicated plan is the simplest explanation! Hello Terrorist! I wish to turn myself in." Gauntlet said as he waltzed up to one of the Nagas.

You'd think the Kobra giants would have found this strange, but in reality the overmuscled lunatics were so jacked up on adrenaline and whatnot that Gauntlet could have recited a cookie recipe to them and they wouldn't have noticed, as the nearest one promptly smashed a club over Gauntlet's head, sending him tumbling down into the darkness with mental mutterings on how they really needed to teach villains some basic manners.

* * *

Diamondheads didn't have much in the way of manners, basic or table, as the robot snake tried to rip Cyborg in half.

Cyborg beat it to the punch, as the teen machine's hands reached up and seized each size of the jaw of the device, and with a furious yell Cyborg pulled, ripping the snake apart at the jaw and all along its length.

As another one attacked, spewing more flame. Cyborg took the blast, snarling as his systems screamed at him, but standing his ground caused the Diamondback to close in, as Cyborg armed his sonic cannon and fed it to the Diamondback, firing off the blast as the snake's mouth closed on his arm, blowing it to pieces. Cyborg reached down, seized up the drill end of the trail, and whirled and tossed it through the head of another Diamondback, and then stepped back as another one erupted from beneath the ground...as Cyborg slammed out his foot and introduced it to his lesser known 'pedal' sonic cannon...

As another leapt out, seizing onto Cyborg and wrapping around him before he could react, as he yelled and hammered at its head, smashing its metallic skill in...as the Diamondback erupted in crackling electricity, the gigantic voltage surging through Cyborg's systems as he yelled and fought to get the creature off...

But even as it went limp, another leapt and seized onto Cyborg, sinking it's teeth into his left shoulder, and seconds later another erupted from beneath Cyborg and wrapped around him. Cyborg thrashed, throwing wild blows as he fought for freedom.

As both snakes zapped him with their full payload. Cyborg spasmed and fell to his knees, but he kept up his struggles.

As two more leapt on him. The last group shock proved to be final.

* * *

The punch sent Robin staggering back, but this time he didn't fall, as he took a pained breath, his eyes beginning to swell shut, and assumed a basic combat pose, daring King Snake to continue to fight.

"Why do you even bother?" King Snake asked.

"You…wouldn't understand." Robin rasped.

"You've lost."

"I'M STILL STANDING!" Robin yelled, and charged once more, swinging for the fences…

King Snake knocked the blow aside with his right arm, as he snapped up his left and buried it in Robin's stomach so hard Robin was lifted nearly a foot off the ground, his breath exploding from him, bloody saliva flying from his mouth…

As King Snake, with a speed beyond anything a serpent could muster, took a step back, leapt, and slashed his foot up, catching Robin under the chin with a leaping snap kick even before his feet could touch down again, as Robin flew backwards and crashed down onto his back.

King Snake landed.

"Rectified."

And the master warrior ran and leapt into the air.

Robin could not find the strength in time to dodge.

As King Snake crashed down, slamming his palm directly into Robin's chest.

The shockwave of agony slammed through the form of Tim Drake, as he struggled mightily for one last time…and then faded, as he was consumed by the void.

King Snake withdrew his palm from Robin's chest, as he relaxed his fingers. It was done.

And yet it wasn't. Robin still lived. That was solely due to King's Snake magnificent blow. He could have easily snapped all of Robin's ribs and impaled his heart…but King Snake didn't want that. That would be too easy.

He had expected far more, and Robin would suffer for his disappointment. He and his whole worthless team.

King Snake's fingers traced up Robin's chest until he found what he wanted: the R symbol. With one quick motion, King Snake tore it from Robin's chest, standing and tucking it into his sash. The last of his many trophies. He would keep it close to remember that.

Titan Island burned, its defenses broken, its heroes crushed underfoot. It belonged to Kobra.

King Snake looked out onto the destruction, sensing its gloriousness despite his lack of sight, and he laughed, long and low.

On this night, such a state would become the world's natural one.


	4. Valley Forge

Part 4: Valley Forge

But, as the saying went, there was literally no rest for the wicked.

And so King Snake found himself still standing on the Tower roof a few hours later, as the many myriad Kobra troops worked feverishly on the building to transform it properly for the coming night. They'd manage to penetrate the Tower's armor covering and disable its inner defenses, but the inside mattered very little: it was simply done for convenience as the troops rapidly worked to distort and re-define the structure of the building and add onto it to construct the necessary beacon that would be needed.

King Snake, once again clad in his cloak, sipped from a cup his personal servant had at the ready (it did not contain tea, though: it was a strong black coffee), waiting on word from his other minions. He may have seized the island, but all that effort would amount to nothing if they didn't find the key. And if they didn't…

The Kobra organization had fallen into disarray after the death of their original leader at the hands of Black Adam. Edmund Dorrance, King Snake, had had to work immensely hard to seize control, to keep the cult from fragmenting into irrelevance. A former soldier and mercenary, he'd then had to work even harder to get his re-direction of the cult as a more military-themed organization to gel (Kobra had previously preferred metahumans), never aware that by doing so he actually drew more parallels than he realized to a certain aforementioned kid's show of the 80's. On top of that, he'd had to find something in the writings and prophecies of the sect that could be used to bring about Kobra's goal of the _Kali Yuga_ after their so called glorious leader had perished so ingloriously.

But Edmund Dorrance did not accept failure. After he'd been blinded by an ambush in his youth, he'd worked with unwavering intensity to recover what that took from him as a warrior and go beyond it, and succeeded, as Robin had found out. When a traitor had attempted an assassination with a rare snake venom in his early days as leader, King Snake had refused all antivenins and fought it off purely through his body breaking it down and his sheer force of will. And in a search for a path, King Snake had indeed discovered a way even the original Kobra, the former leader, had not, as he pieced together writings and prophecies to uncover a way to bring a godly force back through to this side of existence and use it to burn the world to a cinder.

He would NOT fail so close to the goal, if he had to tear the whole of Jump City apart with his bare hands before nightfall to…

A minion was approaching. King Snake turned towards him.

"Report sir."

"Have you found the sacrifice?"

"Not yet sir, but we…"

"FIND HER! NOW!" King Snake bellowed.

"We are going over the predestined area with a fine toothed comb sir, but it is large. Even so, we will not fail you…"

"You'd best not." King Snake growled, hating the delay. "Well then, what else?"

"The city has been occupied as ordered. Any opposing forces among the more traditional authorities have been neutralized. All exits have been sealed and any entering cars are being taken into custody. The disruptive field held during the entire battle: no communications escaped, and all land lines and other alternatives have been severed or blocked. The world is unaware of what is happening here."

Which it would be, King Snake mused, as complacent and self-absorbed as it had become. Ah, but soon, the chaos would begin, and then only the mightiest and fiercest would survive to see tomorrow…

"The children?"

"They all survived the offense. We have captured and placed them in the null field chamber as per your orders. They will be watched as you wait to decide just what to do with them."

"Excellent. NOW FIND THE KEY!"

"Yes sir!" The minion gulped, and hurried off. King Snake sipped from his coffee again. How much time before nightfall and the alignment? How much credibility did he lose with every passing…

Another minion was approaching. This one was reporting on the state of construction, King Snake sensed.

"How goes it?" He asked.

"No problems at all sire! We shall be finished within three hours at most!"

"Two." King Snake said. "Or I'll have your heads."

"YESSIRE!" The minion stammered and ran off. As a personal preference, Dorrance didn't care for constant threats of death and killing the weak (he had his uses for it, but not as a permanent solution), but the old leader had always done it that way and Dorrance had to abide by some of his examples. Used too much though, and it bred dissonance and rebellion. And the last thing King Snake needed was a rebellion. And he was hardly being unfair: King Snake had a better grasp of time and how people worked then the minion did. It was why his attack had opened with the equivalent of a shot off the Titans' bow instead of much heavier bombardment. King Snake could have blasted the tower to ash, but it was more useful to him standing in some form (it would make a fine alter). Even so, he could have hit the island much heavier then he had, but if he'd done that, the Titans might have only sent some of their number out to defend themselves, while the rest hunkered down inside their Tower and tried to ride out the assault. That would have cost them time, and time was the one thing King Snake had in short supply. So instead, he'd just fired a few shots at them, and like the kids they were they got angry and ran out to pick a fight. And evidence showed how well that had worked for them.

That was why King Snake ruled Kobra now. And he wouldn't tolerate anyone threatening it, not ever, and especially not now.

He didn't sense anything like that though at the moment. At the moment he sensed another minion approaching.

"The special addition you requested has been placed where you ordered, master. It is ready for your use as you will."

"Good."

"…master, I do not question your wisdom, but I believe such a measure adds elements of unnecessary risk…"

The only thing that saved the third minion from a broken neck was the sudden interruption.

"SIRE!" Came a sudden voice as the first minion returned much quicker then Dorrance had planned for. "I have just received word! They have located her! Just where you proclaimed she would be!"

King Snake smiled wickedly, forgetting the third minion's questioning. His orders on where to find her based on prophecy had borne fruit. There was something to be said of old writings it seemed.

"Bring her here immediately! Let nothing stand in your way!"

"Yes sir!" The minion replied as he ran off. King Snake let himself relax. They'd found the sacrifice, where it had been promised. With her in hand, everything was in place.

Unless…of course…

Unlike some expectations, the Kobra troops encountered no difficulty in returning with their prisoner, and they swiftly brought her to King Snake.

The poor girl's name was Susan Paniwi, who looked to be in her late teens. She had what could be called Egyptian features (indeed, her family had come from there many generations ago), though on her they were rather plain. But she had one defining trait.

One that King Snake was able to 'see', his blindness aside, merely by touching the girl's face, her mouth gagged so she couldn't scream as she looked into the dull white of his own blind eyes.

It was her eyes that made her stand out. Somewhere in the genetic assembling, someone had apparently switched a DNA strand or three, because her pupils were not perfectly round. Instead, the black spilled upward and downward from the circle, giving the appearance of a thick oval rather then a ring.

Like a slit. Like the eyes of a snake.

"Well done." King Snake said. "Prepare her for the ritual. Tonight, the age of the _Kali Yuga_ begins!"

* * *

The main Kobra battleship, the _Divine Scar_, was still floating over the ocean near Titan Tower, as a few Kobra grunts made tentative repairs to the minor damage it had suffered. As most of the members were either altering the Tower or patrolling the streets of Jump City (indeed, that was where most of the remaining Copperheads were now, as well as generic jeeps and trucks that hadn't warranted being given a snake title), they couldn't do much to replace the destroyed or damaged parts: maybe later, if it was needed..

Deep in its bowels, two of the giant Kobra elites, the Nagas, dragged a dazed Robin through the hallway, as a Lancehead walking ahead of them went up to a keypad lock and typed in a long combination.

The door opened, and the Nagas hurled Robin inside the room, the door snapping shut behind him.

"Robin!" Came a familiar female face, and it helped clear the last of the cobwebs from Robin's head as Starfire ran over and grabbed him, her eyes filled with fear over Robin's battered face. "Are you all right?"

"I've…been better." Robin said, and coughed, the action sending a wave of dull pain through his body. He felt like he'd been worked over by a platoon of Lanceheads with nightsticks instead of having engaged in a martial arts fight. He blinked swollen eyes and tried to clear his vision. "Is anyone…"

"We're all here." Savior said, from where he was sitting across the room. The room was about 300 square feet in size, roughly circular and dimly lit, casting most of the room in shadows. The beaten Titans sat or sprawled in various places across the floor, the room lacking anything resembling furniture. "Or what's left of us anyway."

Robin had a feeling Savior wasn't just referencing their defeat, as he felt at his waist. Not surprisingly, his utility belt was gone. So was his cape and vest, as was all the hidden gadgets Robin had secreted throughout his outfit, including the pants and boots he still wore. He could vaguely remember the search efforts, but they had clearly been quite thorough: Robin suspected the same for the rest of his teammates.

He sat down against the wall, Starfire helping him. She had her own injuries, that was clear, but for his sake she was ignoring them. It gave Robin some comfort.

"I assume…the fact we're all in the same room…that this isn't the casual jail cell."

"Null field, man. No one here is doing anything beyond that of mortal men, and that won't help us get out." Cyborg said dully.

"It works on you too Cyborg?"

"No, it's for organics…they just took out my main power cell and drained the backup down to the dregs. I can barely keep basic operations functioning…" Cyborg struggled.

"Then save your strength." Robin said, as he looked around. Without his strength, Scalpel's density was working against him again, as he was leaning against the wall with Morgue trying to keep him comfortable, much like Starfire was for Robin. Trying to move with the field up would be like someone walking around with lead weights tied to their limbs and body. Robin didn't envy the alien.

"Hey, look on the bright side Cy. At least they left you some power." Beast Boy said.

"Which begs the question of just why they'd do that. And the only reason I can think of that they'd want Cyborg alive and alert on some level is so he can witness things I really don't want to consider." Savior said grimly. "I suspect we're being filmed as well. Possibly recorded." Savior said, pointing upward.

"Where? I don't see a camera." Terra said, looking around.

"I suspect that's the point of it." Savior replied. "Now, Robin, did you figure out just why Kobra picked a fight with us?"

Robin coughed again.

"I fought with their leader, a guy called King Snake. He personally came down from his throne to kick my ass. He said that our island was the most practical nexus of power focusing or something or other, stars lining up and all that…he said that to bring about the _Kali Yuga_, which is basically an age of chaos, he was going to bring the serpent entity Apophis across from the dimensions and then there would be running and screaming…but I have no idea if he made any sense or not."

"He's mixing his mythologies, but he might be far more right then would be good for us." Raven said from where she sat, legs crossed, trying to recover from her own efforts and injuries, which wasn't helped by the null field blocking all the Titans' powers. "The Kali Yuga is from the Hindu religion, one of the four stages of development the world goes through, the Yugas. Named after the apocalypse demon Kali, whose name means strife, discord, quarrel, and so on in Sanskrit. Though the Kali Yuga is supposed to be more of an aeons long period of breakdown rather then a sudden cataclysmic event, but it's clear King Snake isn't taking its writing literally."

"And Apophis?"

"That's his Greek name: he appeared in Egyptian myth under the name of Apep. He was a deification of darkness and pandemonium, all that was bad in the world and worse, the greatest enemy of Ra, and so on. According to the myths, every morning Apep, representing chaos, would attack the Sunship, representing order, trying to devour it, and the red tinge at dawn and dusk was supposedly Apep's blood staining the sky as the Sun defeated it."

"Wait, I thought in Egyptian gods the evil snake one was Set." Morgue said.

"You're partially right. You see, Set eventually took Apep's place in the myths, but not because of anything the god did. No, you see, around 17th century BC Egypt was being ruled by the Hyksos, a foreign group that had invaded and conquered Egypt. They chose Set as their favored God, because at the time he was seen as protector of Ra, and was also associated closely with Lower Egypt, which is where they drew most of their power. But these outside rulers were hated by nationalistic Egyptians, and so Set started being given evil characteristics by them. And as time passed, it kept up, and before you knew it, Set was suddenly the god of evil, because of a bunch of xenophobic humans, and Apep faded away, Set having 'taken his place', as it were." Raven said. "I have to wonder if this didn't happen more literally then we realized. If there really was an Apep, an Apophis, who was banished somehow by this…and who eagerly would like to return."

"Could King Snake be wrong?" Robin asked.

"It might be worse if he is. Before I got tossed in here, I was dragged around while unconscious, but my soul self still picked up traces of immensely powerful magic. King Snake is building a real powerful focus point down there and is planning to call SOMETHING to our world. It might be Apophis, or it might be something that tricked him into thinking it was Apophis…but whether it's the Egyptian snake god Apep, the Norse evil snake deity Nidhogg, the Aztec death god Mictlantecuhtli, or something even WORSE, in any case, NOTHING good will come if King Snake is allowed to complete his ritual."

"And if that's not a cue, I don't know what is!" Gauntlet says as he sprang up. "So, what's the plan Robin?"

"…what?"

"What's your brilliant plan? I saw how things were going badly, so I figured, okay, Robin is throwing this fight so he can get our enemy to lower their guard, and then he'll spring a counterattack and pull a Whacking Day on Kobra! So let's hear it."

"Gauntlet! We might be being recorded! Shut up!" Savior snapped.

"It doesn't matter." Robin said, and all the Titans looked at him. "There's no plan Rob. There's nothing. We've lost."

"…no…no. You're not giving up." Starfire said, her eyes filling with horror.

"Give up? No, that's refusing to search for options. I've searched all I can. And there's nothing we can do."

The Titans fell silent, as Robin looked at them with bleary eyes.

"…nothing we can do…nothing _we_ can do…"

And the room went silent, as it became apparent that King Snake's accuracy in his plans on whether he could summon a catastrophic snake entity that could eat the sun or something else that would settle for doing less defined horrid deeds didn't really matter. The Titans' flag, so to speak, was gone.

It wasn't silent long.

"WHAT? We lost to KOBRA?" Gauntlet exploded. "INCONCEIVABLE! I could see losing to Mad Mod, or Mother Mae-Eye, hell, even Catman! But KOBRA? How the hell did we lose to KOBRA!?"

"Perhaps because they attacked us with enough firepower to level half the country?" Savior snapped back bitterly, not in the mood.

"Never took you for a quitter Noel." Gauntlet replied. Raven didn't need to be an empath to sense Savior's reaction: she could read it in his body language.

"Quitter? QUITTER? I got beaten down by a group of goddamn roid freaks while you futzed around with ninjas, playing like it was some stupid game!" Savior snarled as he got up and got in Gauntlet's face. "Where the hell were you? Oh, YOU WERE THROWING THE FIGHT! BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE TWO GODDAMN BRAIN CELLS TO RUB TOGETHER!"

"Hey! Knock it off you two!" Morgue snapped, getting up.

"Friends don't..." Starfire echoed.

"At least I won MY fight. I ended up getting dogpiled by your leftovers!"

"_YOUR_ fight? _Leftovers?_" Savior hissed with seething disdain. "I swear the best part of you ran down your mother's leg."

The dull sound of Gauntlet's fist slamming into Savior's face echoed through the room, as the Titans stared in horror.

Then Savior got up and rammed into Gauntlet, and the two went down in a thrashing tangle, the two hammering on each other as best they could without their powers, as the Titans began to yell (and in Starfire's case, cry) for them to stop. Normally the Titans would have immediately leapt to break up the fight, but with all their powers sealed and with Robin, Cyborg, and Scalpel in no shape to move let alone fight it fell to the females and Beast Boy to try and break it up.

Easier said then done, as Savior shoved away Beast Boy and then Morgue, which gave Gauntlet time to grab him by the throat as the two resumed rolling around, Savior throwing furious elbows at Gauntlet's face while screaming how long Rob had this coming.

Perhaps the scariest thing was that Rob had no reply: he just fought back.

* * *

It gave the watchers of the video feed showing the Titans imprisoned in their cell great joy, as they sat there, broken, helpless, and now fighting amongst themselves, tearing themselves apart even before they suffered their fates, which were still undefined. King Snake might decide to execute them, or use them for something far worse, or perhaps he'd let the troops do whatever they would like to them, and the Kobra minions had plenty of ideas for the heretics who would stop them from bringing in the destined age.

But for now the watchers enjoyed the battle between Savior and Gauntlet, as Gauntlet shoved Terra away and sent her crashing into Starfire, sending both tumbling onto Robin. Terra got back up and resumed helping Beast Boy, Raven, and Morgue in their attempts to separate the two, only to catch a stray elbow to the face. As she went down, bumping into Morgue and knocking her down as well, BB went to check on them. Morgue didn't need it as she got back up and resumed her efforts, but Savior shoved Morgue away again immediately sending her crashing down near Scalpel, who could only sit and watch the fight helplessly, crippled by his injuries and weight. But by then Terra was back up as she, Raven, and Beast Boy continued to try and stop the fight...

And then abruptly, the picture crackled and rolled, the fight reduced to a scrambled mess. The watching minions panicked, unsure what had just happened. Was it...

But after four seconds the picture cleared up again. Nothing had changed: the two were still fighting and several of the other Titans were still trying to separate them. The Lanceheads sighed with relief and resumed watching the battle, as the female alien finally got involved, Morgue apparently hurt in her knockaway. While she stayed lying against the wall near Scalpel, the other four Titans finally managed to pry the two males apart, Raven and Terra holding Savior back while Starfire and Beast Boy held back Gauntlet.

"I swear, before this world comes to an end, the very last thing I will ever do is break your goddamn neck!" Savior snarled...as Raven reached up and clamped a hand down on his neck, pinching a nerve as hard as she could, Savior's venom abruptly stopping as his eyes rolled up and he passed out.

Gauntlet had no reply, as his teammates let him go and the blonde haired teenager dully looked at his hands, like he couldn't believe what had happened. That the anger and resentment ran that deep. And that when it came down to it, the Titans had broken apart instead of coming together.

And the watchers laughed and commented in satisfaction to themselves. The team was finished. Maybe they'd defeated some grave threats, but they'd crumbled before the destiny of Kobra. They were unopposed. Nothing could stop them.

* * *

And so time passed.

Preparations were completed.

Everything was in place.

The sun was finishing its journey below the horizon. The twilight's last gleaming.

It's LAST gleaming.

King Snake stood at the alter, Susan Paniwi bound to it. The stone was pure flint, with the bones of every species of snake scattered through it and the many modifications Kobra had made to the Tower. Before him stood 12 Kobra minions, their costumes stripped from them, clad in green robes, daggers at hand, standing in a specified pattern.

The sun vanished entirely.

"Let it begin." King Snake said.

* * *

As a dozen Lanceheads moved through the hallway towards the prison room, guns at the ready, the primary one typing in the entrance code.

The door slid open, and the Titans recoiled some from the brighter light, as the Lanceheads marched in. As it turned out, King Snake had been too busy to deal with all the Titans at the moment, so he'd given his troops free reign: they could do whatever they wanted, except if it involved Robin.

And with their eagerness for the end of the world, and the general bloodlust and viciousness that was at the core of most Kobra minions, they knew just what they wanted to do to start off.

"The blonde." The leader said, pointing at Terra. Two Lanceheads immediately headed over and yanked her up from a sitting position.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH…!" Beast Boy yelled before another rammed his gun's butt into Beast Boy's stomach, and as he collapsed to his knees another brought his gun down on Beast Boy's back, as several more primed their guns and aimed them at the other Titans, several of whom had started getting up to fight.

"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, OR YOU'RE ALL DEAD!" The leader snarled, as the Lancehead that had struck Beast Boy first kicked him while he was down and then walked away.

"The fat one." The leader said, and the Lanceheads stomped over and grabbed Sophie, yanking her away as two held their guns on Nigel. Scalpel would have completely ignored the guns and risked whatever death or further injury they brought to stop the Lanceheads, but in the null field Scalpel's muscles couldn't even seem to muster the power needed to move his body. His agonized eyes said it all though, as Morgue was dragged away: she'd taken her mask down and her expression mirrored Scalpel's.

Terra was dragged out into the hallway, and immediately a metal collar was snapped around her neck. She blinked and tried to touch it, only for that attempt to earn her a backhand across her face.

"Don't bother, bitch." The striking Lancehead said, as Terra crumbled to her knees, holding her face. "With that collar on you're as helpless as when you were in that room."

Morgue was dragged out in turn and also given a power-blocking collar, and, looking pleased, the leader pressed the button to close the door, leaving the rest of the Titans in the room as they dragged the two females away.

"No…please…take me…NOOOOO!" Beast Boy wailed, as he crawled over and hammered on the door.

His words, as you might expect, fell on deaf ears.

* * *

King Snake uncorked a vial and poured the contents on his fingers: the blood of a cobra. He traced patterns with it on his chest and face, feeling the warmth on him and reveling in it.

There were many other vials carefully placed around the alter: one for every kind of snake venom in the world. King Snake consulted his electronic clock to see how much time was left (it was rather strange, such a modern piece of machinery around such an ancient ritual), and then he picked up a large goblet, as ever designed to look like a snake, and he lifted it up, offering it briefly.

And then he lowered it, as he picked up the first vial, uncorked it, and dripped a single drop of the venom into the goblet. He replaced the first and picked up another, adding another drop of that particular poison. And once again with the next, and again, and again, as King Snake slowly performed the ritual steps.

As the stars shone above him…

* * *

Sophie heard it before she saw it, as the Lanceheads dragged the two female Titans down several hallways: the sound of raucous yelling and cheering.

She found the sound familiar.

It sounded like the one time she'd been on vacation in Spain with her family and they'd attended a bullfight. It had the same indulgence of the dark side of mankind's mind, of the reveling in their innate animal sides…except darker. Fiercer.

And then she and Terra were dragged in.

Once it had been a cafeteria, but in the past hour it had been transformed into an arena, complete with tables serving as makeshift barriers for a circle. It was surrounded by Kobra minions, in various states of undress, who roared loudly as the Titans were brought in. It was surprising to see the generic nature of the minions removed, but their eyes all remained the same: they wanted blood.

You would think such behavior would anger King Snake, but to the contrary, he was allowing this with his approval. The age of chaos was beginning, and such behavior in his mind showed how Kobra deserved to survive: they would serve the aims of such a world well.

Morgue and Terra were separated, the blonde dragged away as Morgue was pushed forward, her eyes darting back and forth…

And then she was shoved into the arena, and the crowd roared again.

Terra was brought to the side of the makeshift circle, a 'place of honor' reserved for her, as she gasped at who else stood in the circle: a Naga, his armor stripped from him, his chest covered in scars and a look of cruel joy on his face. He wielded both a barbed whip and a spiked morning star, as he raised the weapons and roared. The crowd roared back.

"What the hell is this, some kind of death match?" Terra said.

"Oh no…this is a slaughter. You better look good blondie, because when Magnus is done with the fatso, you're next." A Lancehead hissed in Terra's ear. Perhaps the worst part was that the speaking Lancehead was female herself. Sex mattered not to Kobra, at least King Snake's version. Just loyalty, devotion...

"WHAT? What kind of a match is THAT?" Terra yelled.

"Fun." The Lancehead replied.

And cruelty.

A small knife was tossed at Morgue's feet, and she slowly picked it up, as if she was still unable to grasp what was happening to her, as the Naga, named Magnus, licked a split tongue over filed, sharpened teeth, thinking of all the ways he could hurt his chosen prey, all the fun he could have.

"KILL HER!" Someone yelled, and Magnus roared and charged.

* * *

King Snake added the last of the venoms, which was, of course, the venom of the cobra.

As the timer finished counting down and went to zero.

The alignment was complete.

"_**KALIYUT ERGOR APOPHIS!"**_ King Snake bellowed in an ancient dead language as he raised the goblet.

"KALIYUT ERGOR APOPHIS!" The gathered Kobra minions roared back, as King Snake took the goblet to his lips and drank the mixture of venoms, feeling them burn down his throat. But they would not kill him. Not in time.

"Hear me dark one! I have brought about all that you have desired! Hear my voice, and come to me, so we may remake the world as we see fit!"

"_**FOR KOBRA!"**_ The minions bellowed.

And then they raised their daggers and as one plunged them into their own hearts, the poisoned blades taking all their lives within instants, as the bodies of the minions fell and bled onto the tower, a sacrifice to bring about the age they all desired.

King Snake's own dagger lay on the alter before him, the blade composed of a fang from every snake in the world. He snatched it up, and with one final roar, brought the knife down.

Into his own chest.

* * *

A roar that echoed in Magnus' charge, as he closed in on Morgue, who had actually started crying in fear.

Until Magnus got close, and the crocodile tears were immediately switched off, replaced by a look of cold fury.

As Sophie leapt, showing agility beyond belief, and slashed out her leg, slamming it against Magnus' head and sending him flying like he'd been shot out of a cannon, his body smashing through several Kobra minions before he crashed against the wall, a shattered, broken mess.

As Sophie landed.

And the holographic projection around her shorted out, revealing not the plump vigilante, but her alien boyfriend Scalpel.

Who was NOT affected by the personally constructed power blocking collar they had put on Morgue: while the null field room blocked all their powers, it drew its energy from giant fusion generators. A power source for such a small device as the collar could only seal one power at a time. And Scalpel's wasn't it.

"Surprise." Scalpel said, as he ripped it off.

The Lanceheads never even had time to react.

As black energy seized them, and the Kobra soldiers were flung screaming all over the placed, smashed into walls, floors, or each other. Within ten seconds all were down and defeated.

As 'Terra' shimmered and turned into Raven, the goth ripping her own ineffective collar off.

"You cut it close. And with your injuries..." She commented.

"You saw what he would have done to Sophie if he'd been able to." Scalpel growled. His body was still in agony...but if he'd had to, he'd have taken apart every single Kobra minion in the room with his bare hands. Pain was temporary. Pride and love were forever.

"Come on Nigel, blood scores later, let's go!" Raven said, as the two hurried back to the Titans' prison.

* * *

As King Snake opened his eyes, and then slowly withdrew the knife from his body. The wound closed up by itself as the blade was removed: there wasn't even any blood. King Snake had barely felt any pain.

The ritual was working. To show his dedication, King Snake had to demonstrate his willingness to die for Apophis, as had his minions. By basis of being the ritual conductor, King Snake actually got to survive his fatal wound. But the Kobra minions who had not were true believers: they had gone to their deaths willingly and gladly.

Perhaps that in a way was a tragedy.

"…thank you dark one, for granting me this gift. I will be a great servant to you, as will my many minions. Come! This world awaits!" King Snake declared, thrusting the dagger up.

As the body of the Kobra members suddenly began dissolving, their body transforming into a strange red ash, as a wind suddenly whipped up and carried the red dust up and around the Tower roof, a spiral of pressure causing the dust to rise up above King Snake as well.

All that was left was the last two steps. To properly cross into the world, King Snake would serve as a beacon. Apophis would project his power into the Kobra master's form, using the man as an anchor to the world. Once the bond was firm, Kobra would kill his blood sacrifice, and in her death Apophis would cross over.

And then the world would be his.

In a way, it already was, as King Snake felt the snake venom within him twist and writhe, beginning to transform.

And instead of killing him, the poison began to empower him.

* * *

In the end, Scalpel didn't even have to give any warning: he just kicked the metal doors to the Titans' prison off with one gigantic blow. None of the Titans were in the way: they'd already moved. Their faith in him, the sureness that he'd succeed, comforted him.

"The field only extends to that room. Get out, your powers will be accessible again." Raven said. "We located the room where they're keeping our weapons and such: we retrieved your main battery Cyborg."

"We got you Vic." Savior said, as he, Gauntlet, and Beast Boy helped pick up the robotic teen and move him out of the room. Despite himself, Cyborg was smiling.

"I swear I'll never diss you again man." He said to Robin, who looked pleased as well.

"Don't mention it." Robin replied. "It might not have worked."

But that was one of the gifts the Titans possessed: even though most had left the technical teenage age, villains continued to think of them as stupid kids. Robin doubted they'd have locked the Justice League all up in one room, even with a power blocker, but what did it matter for the Titans, they were stupid kids.

Far too stupid to pick up on Robin's subtle vocal cues.

Far too stupid to have practiced basic hand signs beforehand to convey a plan without speaking.

Far too stupid to subtly locate a camera.

Far too stupid for the jokester to have clued in long before he'd spoken that Robin hadn't thrown the fight, and had been waiting for a proper cue.

Far too stupid for said jokester and the tactical and staid member to pick up on the cues and pretend to get in a fight.

Far too stupid to make sure the fight looked as real as possible (and keeping what WAS real reigned in), and fierce enough to make sure it would draw the attention of whoever was watching it.

Far too weak (and stupid) for the cyborg member to carefully pool what very little power you had left for one brief moment of weapon use, a weapon not removed from the body because it was assumed there was far too little power to use it.

Far too stupid to have a layer of false skin over one's inner thigh that concealed a range of micro-small equipment, equipment that had been undiscovered in the body search despite their efforts. Robin hadn't yet been able to hide anything practically behind his eye, but what he had managed wasn't bad.

Far too stupid to assemble that equipment into four holo-pins and keep said assembling concealed.

Far too stupid to, via "knockaways" during the fight, as well as a little sleight of hand afterward, carefully get those holo-pins to the people chosen to wear them.

Far too stupid to consider several seconds of scrambled picture as anything but a camera error, instead of say, every bit of power a cyborg teenager could spare pumped into a scrambler weapon to give the four chosen people cover to switch identities.

And above all else, far too stupid to base the whole plan that at some point someone would come and select the weaker members of the team for some kind of terrible fate, based on minimal observation on the type of people who worked for such an organization that had such a goal as Kobra.

But the Titans were just young. They were not stupid.

And hence they were free, as Cyborg's power core was slotted back in, the machine teen powering back to maximum strength within moments. Beast Boy grinned, then rubbed his face, his jaw still aching from the gun stock blow he'd taken, as a second Raven within the cell turned into Terra, who touched the green changeling's shoulder.

"Thank you." Terra said, indicating Beast Boy's struggle.

"Hey, it was my job. Made sure they didn't notice any subtle thing like Sophie's increased weight and such." Beast Boy replied.

"What if it had been the real me?"

"…they'd have had to kill me to keep me down." Beast Boy said, his tone indicating that was no joke.

Terra blinked, and then grabbed Beast Boy and kissed him as hard as she could. Beast Boy's pain suddenly seemed very distant.

"Yes yes people, save world now, make out later." Savior said as he tapped Terra on the shoulder, which made her break the embrace, looking a touch peeved.

"You're just mad you can't get a kiss from Raven."

"Not exceedingly important." Savior said, as he headed over to the gothic girl. "Though your health is. Are you all right?"

"I've recovered from the cannon shot enough, it seems." Raven said, as she reached for Noel's arm.

"No, I'm all right. Robin, Starfire, and Scalpel took the greater beatings: heal them up. You'll need all the strength you can spare…especially if we're going to face…Raven, do you think…?"

"I can handle myself. You focus on yours Savior." Raven said, as she pulled her hood up.

"Yes'm." Savior replied solemnly, as Raven went to heal up Robin and the aliens. His eyes turned onto Gauntlet, who had delightedly armed up his namesake and was looking appreciatively at it before he noticed Savior's gaze.

"...sorry. Even for a ruse, that mother comment was too far. I should have been a bigger man then that." Savior said, looking at the ground and tentatively running his hand through his hair. He and Gauntlet had their disagreements, but the nasty black thread that had run through their attention-getting 'wrestling match' was clearly notable.

"Wasn't expecting an apology. Thanks." Gauntlet said, as the Titans began heading off to where Scalpel said their gear was stored.

"...yeah." Savior said to himself. There'd been more truth then he liked in his acid-tongue rant towards Rob, and Gauntlet hadn't expected Noel to retract it. Forget what Savior said about Gauntlet; what did that say about him?

A question for another time, Savior decided, and headed down the hall with the rest of the Titans to the room that held their confiscated gear.

* * *

"Your symbol." Starfire said, as Robin pulled on his chest piece. Robin glanced down, seeing the hole where his R symbol usually was. "What happened?"

"…King Snake. He must have taken it off me." Robin said: he had not actually felt the villain removing his R icon, but he had enough brains to realize that King Snake was probably a trophy collector, with a drawer or room filled with mementos of bested foes. He wondered if his symbol rested there now or if King Snake had just stuck it in his pocket. Either way, he couldn't let it irk him: he had more important things to worry about.

"Oh Robin…" Starfire said: a warrior herself, she could sense what such a thing could subtly do to Robin's pride.

"It's all right. It's just a costume. I still have my spirit, and he'll never take that." Robin said, as he snapped on his cape and flexed his fingers.

"I hate to make the point that ruins everyone's day considerably more then a wrecked costume, but considering we were being watched constantly by a camera, and we're not in that room any more, shouldn't someone have triggered the big noisy alarm that would ensure us headaches for the foreseeable future?" Gauntlet said as he stood leaning in the doorway: he had no armor to recover and the Gauntlet, in its concealed ring form, could not be removed from Gauntlet's hand unless he was dead (and they hadn't thought to kill him, since the null field blocked his ability to activate the Gauntlet as well as any natural power).

"Maybe we're just lucky." Morgue said, as she put more darts in her personal sidearms and Scalpel, his glaive gone, checked over his backup sabre-esque weapon. He didn't have as great a degree of proficiency in it, but he'd manage.

"Our luck doesn't tend to flow that way. It tends to manifest more in villains making oversights time after time that let us survive and win, not fortune that lets us avoid trouble." Savior said, putting his armored jacket back on.

"…I wish you hadn't said that Savior."

"Trouble?" Savior repeated grimly, as Shimmer blades formed on both his arms, as several of the other Titans tensed for combat.

"Nope, not yet." Gauntlet said, peering out into the hallway. "But I'm just saying, with the sheer size of this ship, the _Divine Scar_ I believe it's name is, and the sagacity that the Kobra organization has shown thus far, if they really were gonna spring an ambush on us they would probably do it right about…"

And Gauntlet whirled and punched out down the hall with his yellow construct energy.

Hitting…the empty air behind him.

"Ah nutbunnies, I was certain that if I baited the hook like that they'd bite…" Gauntlet said as he turned around.

And yelped as he dove sideways, barely avoiding a Kobra barrage of shots as the Lanceheads that had come around the corner from the OTHER side of the wall when Gauntlet was punching his phantom ambushers opened fire.

"I hate silent alarms." Gauntlet commented.

"Bravo, St. Andrew. STAR, CYBORG!" Robin yelled, the two not needing specific orders as they ran for the door and leaned out, Cyborg firing a powerful sonic blast as Starfire hurled a few Starbolts.

"Don't bother any more! Cyborg, close the door! Star, seal us in!" Robin ordered, and Cyborg did just that, grabbing the metal door and slamming it shut, as Starfire pressed her hand on the edge and melted the door and wall together.

"Raven, get us out of here." Robin said, as he gestured for the Titans to gather close together. They did so, Raven at the center, as she reached down and concentrated.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

And in a swirl of dark power, even as the door began to be blasted in, Raven warped the Titans away from the room.

Unfortunately, she forgot about the disruptive field.

The good news was, the field was designed to keep Raven out of the _Divine Scar_, not in. As a result of that, Raven and her friends were not subjected to some gruesome fate when she passed through said disruptive field and found that going out also proved to cause her problems.

Specifically, the bad news was, it disrupted her efforts anyway, in this case canceling out her destination as she was forced to reform immediately after passing through it.

Which meant that the Titans found themselves right in the middle of the massive deck at the top of the _Divine Scar_.

Which was covered with the minions of Kobra who were watching the ceremony going on at the Tower below.

It could have been worse: they could have teleported right into the space occupied by a Kobra group and died a sudden, horrible death.

The Titans didn't think about such a possibility though, as they realized with shock just where they were, even as Raven groaned and fell to her knees.

The minions of Kobra were also somewhat surprised.

At least until Robin recovered: the reasons why they were here were unimportant, they had to stop King Snake!

"TITANS, GO!"

Complete and utter havoc erupted across the massive deck as the Titans tore into their nearby opponents as various Kobra members ran for their weapons and vehicles and the Titans tried to stop them. But the deck was huge, and the Titans could only fight so hard so fast, and before even they knew it Copperheads were in the air.

The Titans fought on, regardless to this setback. They couldn't falter at a time like this.

* * *

"GET THE TROOPS ORGANIZED! THEY'RE FALLING ALL OVER THEMSELVES!" The Kobra Organizer screamed at his minions in front of their computers, as they had had to switch from observing the ceremony to coordinating a sudden defense effort. "GET THE DIAMONDBACKS UP THERE! AND CALL ALL THE PATROLLING TROOPS AWAY FROM THE CITY! DESTROY THEM! DESTROY THEM!"

* * *

Robin cracked two Lanceheads over the head with his staff and then brained a Blackadder with a Birdarang as he ran towards the front of the _Divine Scar,_ which was closest to Titans' Tower. He had a deep feeling of unease in his gut, as if he was already too late.

Such a feeling was lost on his teammates: they were too busy surviving. Cyborg blasted a Copperhead from the air as Beast Boy smashed through some Lanceheads as an elephant. Savior, checking on Raven, punched out four attacking Lanceheads before Raven got up and indicated she was okay by ripping the machine gun off a Copperhead before it could blast them and then sending it flying up through the small helicopter.

Trap doors opened and the rolled up forms of the Diamondbacks popped out, uncurling and leaping to the attack…until Gauntlet smashed one with an energy fist and Scalpel sliced another one in half with one quick slash. A Naga came at them, wielding a crackling electrified sword, but the two Titans spun and slammed their weapons against him as hard as they could, sending the giant crashing through his smaller fellows like a bowling ball from hell. Meanwhile, Sophie's bat mass overwhelmed another Lancehead as she stole his plasma gun and used it on his fellows, though she was nice enough to turn the power setting down to a non-lethal setting.

Terra, unfortunately, did not do so well: she was completely out of her element on this skyship made of metal. She had some rocks in the battle jacket she'd acquired, but the bedlam around her made her quickly lose track of them. And even as she did, a Lancehead stuck up on her to clobber her with a tonfa staff…

Until Robin clobbered him instead, startling Terra.

"Be more careful!" He ordered, and ran on.

A Death Adder (damn those were being launched already) tore past the deck of the _Divine Scar_, its bullets not distinguishing friend from foe. Robin was saved by a black energy shield, as Raven appeared near him and gestured that she'd fight by his side. Robin smirked slightly, and then three Blackadders were attacking him and Robin was forced to defend himself.

"THIS IS FOR MY FINISH!" Cyborg bellowed as he swung a Diamondback around, clobbering a group of Lanceheads. "AND THIS IS FOR MY FLAG!" He added: his body's flag decoration had long been blasted and scorched down to a few faint and indistinguishable markings of color. To show his rage, he introduced the Diamondback to two Nagas. "AND THIS IS FOR MY BABY!" He finished, as he swung the Diamondback up and smashed it to pieces on the deck.

As a Copperhead sprayed missiles at him. Cyborg leapt back, the explosions just missing him as he blew the helicopter out of the air with his sonic cannon. Nearby, Scalpel crouched and leapt up, grabbing the landing strut of another Copperhead and slashing with his sword, cleaving the tail off and leaping off as the machine went into a spin.

"Wow, so many things to hit, so little time…" Gauntlet said, looking around at all the battle.

"JUST DO SOMETHING!" Savior yelled as he leapt past him, punching out two Lanceheads as they tried to get in another Copperhead, then snarling as another Diamondback shot flame at him. Savior jumped over the grounded helicopter as the Diamondback tried to follow him (by going through the open doors), but Savior had anchored his body to the ground with two Shimmer strands before he'd jumped, and as the machine snake entered the helicopter he fired two more out of his hands into the ground and contracted all four, pulling himself down at high speed, smashing his Shimmer-enclosed legs down on the main rotor (good thing that while stationary those weren't sharp) and crushing both the helicopter and the snake inside it. Savior immediately jumped away as the smashed machines exploded.

"Show off." Gauntlet said, miffed. "Okay, what can I do…oh, I know!"

Gauntlet held his arm out as the Gauntlet's yellow energy surged out, forming into a gigantic sword that would have made Cloud Strife pause, as Gauntlet then swung the blade up...

And rammed it into the deck of the _Divine Scar._

And then started running, dragging his blade along and carving a nasty gash on the deck as he sprinted through the chaos, punching a few distracted Lanceheads as he ran.

Until once again the Blackadders confronted him, a dozen of the warriors, backed up by a Naga. Gauntlet stopped, looking at his familiar opponents.

"...what are you DOING?" One of the Blackadders said.

"Making a gigantic gouge in the hull, thus destroying it's integrity!" Gauntlet said. "Which should, in turn, cause this big piece of gaudy junk to crash quite dramatically."

"...WHAT? Do you have any idea how BIG the _Divine Scar_ is? Do you realize how big your gouge would have to be?"

"Well, I figure it's more constructive then fighting you losers. Are you SURE there isn't a factory anywhere?"

"KILL HIM!" The Naga roared, as he charged at Gauntlet, swinging his club.

Gauntlet showed him his own club, as he swung the Gauntlet gouge-blade out and slammed the dull end across the Naga, sending him flying to the side, even as Gauntlet swung the weapon back and aimed it at the Blackadders, as the blade fragmented into multiple segments and lanced out, the newly dulled ends slamming into the ninjas before they could act and sending them all sprawling.

"Warning. Objects in Gauntlet are lighter then they appear. As light as my banter!" Gauntlet said, as he re-merged the blade.

As a clicking noise sounded in Gauntlet's left ear as a Lancehead stuck a pistol against the back of Gauntlet's head.

"Considering how fruity your plan is, maybe it's really how light you are in your loafers." The pistol pointing Lancehead said nastily.

"Oh lighten up!" Gauntlet replied...as the Lancehead found within the split second he needed to pull the trigger, a line of yellow energy had shot out of Gauntlet's weapon and encased his pistol in a force field orb.

"...what?" The Lancehead said before Gauntlet knocked him senseless.

"I'm not wasting more A-Material on you losers." Gauntlet replied, slamming the blade back in and resuming his run to carve his gouge across the _Divine Scar._

* * *

Starfire could only think of one word in the language known as English to describe what was transpiring before her: hell. There were words in several other languages she might have used, but somehow on this Day of Independence, using the word Robin might have used seemed fitting.

Blackadders charged directly at her; Lanceheads flanked from the sides, and she even saw several Nagas leveling their energy weapons at her.

Starfire threw herself against the deck, blasting the Nagas' feet with eyebeams, then using a burst of flight to tackle the nearest Blackadder, beating him with her fists as he fell. She turned upwards, flying into the air and hurling several Starbolts down towards the deck, forcing the less suicidal-courageous of the terrorists to scatter.

Starfire saw Terra behind her, using nothing but her physical prowess and sheer dumb luck to dodge out of the way of the attacks. Star realized there weren't any rocks this high above the Earth, and that Terra was a reclining fowl without her powers.

And then a Copperhead nearby blasted at Starfire with its laser cannons, sending the Tamaranian in a wild zigzag retreating pattern. She fired back, blasting the fuel tank of the helicopter, as it crashed onto the _Divine Scar,_ causing the deck to promptly light up with a brilliant ball of fire, sending several of the Kobra troopers sprawling across the deck. Still more attacked her, using jetpacks and projectiles, forcing Starfire to bob and weave to avoid getting subdued again…

More Copperheads began to lift off, and Starfire realized that if she didn't get to them, they'd get to the rest of the Titans…

A flurry of Starbolts slammed into the deck, and Starfire was gone before her enemies could recover. She'd looked for Terra during her assault, but seen no sign of her: where had the geokinetic gone so quickly?

* * *

Terra was falling. She was falling very fast, and for a brief instant, the rush made her forget _why _she was falling, and where she was falling too. The wind searing her face, but Tara Markov forced her eyes to open and saw the ocean below her, glistening with the glow of the moon and the lights of Jump City.

Memory came rushing back—what they'd done to Gar, the fact that she had virtually no ammunition and was too far above the surface to call up more. She'd tried to do her share with what she had, what she'd been taught, and with her rage, but it wasn't enough.

So she'd done the only thing she could think off—thrown herself off the side of the deck and hope she didn't get shot on the way down.

It then occurred to Terra that she lacked something very important: a rock platform to stand on. Which would stop her from splattering against the ocean like a rock.

"Aw crap," she muttered, as the sea rushed in…

* * *

King Snake was completely unaware of how badly things had suddenly become for his organization: he was completely lost in the ritual, feeling Apophis' power flow through him, stronger and stronger. He could feel the strength growing in his muscles, beyond even what he'd conceived of. He could feel his senses sharpening even more, divining more of the world beyond him…

And then, the world formed before him. He could see. His sight had been restored.

And the power still grew.

King Snake threw back his head and laughed, glorying in it all, as the power reached its pinnacle.

Within minutes, the end would be here.

* * *

The Copperhead had just lifted off the deck when it violently stopped, and then the pilot was thrown out as Cyborg hoisted the machine by it's tail and swung it around, plowing through another group of Lanceheads before he swung it back up and smashed it down on a Naga. Another Naga appeared nearby, aiming a powerful laser cannon at Cyborg...before Cyborg's fist slammed into his face, rocket-punch style, knocking the Naga senseless as Cyborg's arm returned to him.

"Manzinger who?" Cyborg commented, though his words didn't calm his worry. He may have been charged back up, but Raven couldn't fix his mech body like the others, and it had taken one hell of a pounding. On top of that, he'd exhausted most of his weapons in the initial fight: sure, he had his sonic cannon, but considering the situation, he really needed more options.

Though perhaps having less weapons had one advantage. It made him lighter.

As the Death Adder streaked past him, and as it did it detached a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb and dropped it right on Cyborg's head.

Or tried: Cyborg saw it coming and ran for his life. The outer explosion still caught him as the bomb blasted a giant hole in the _Divine Scar's_ deck, blowing apart Kobra minions, Copperheads, and Diamondbacks as Cyborg screamed and tumbled, crashing onto the deck twenty feet away and rolling painfully a few times before stopping. If he hadn't been who he was that would have been a lot worse.

This was not going as well as expected, for him or the others. The Titans were kicking butt on the ground, but only Starfire seemed to be fighting in the air, and air superiority was important in any battle...

And on that thought, Cyborg had a crazy idea.

Now all he needed was a door.

He semi-got one, as a trap door suddenly opened and another Diamondback popped out.

Cyborg blew it away before it could get online fully, grabbed the trapdoor, and ripped it off. As he'd hoped, it was an actual entrance instead of a pure launching tube, and he clambered down the ladder within.

He sure as hell hoped he didn't get lost.

* * *

A Copperhead flying in to assist the Kobra minions with cover fire suddenly found a swarm of bats appearing in its sights, before the bats formed into Morgue on the side of the machine, as she grabbed the gunner and hurled him off the side before she shot the pilot with a tranq dart, pulling him free and bringing him with her as she leapt from the crashing machine. Nearby, a Blackadder tried to engage Scalpel in a sword duel...and found out the hard way how strong Nigel was: freshly healed and rested from their prison stay, Scalpel sent the man flying away with one slash as the idiot tried to trade blows with him.

Scalpel's follow up attacker proved to be a lot bigger. Both of them, as twin Nagas stormed towards the alien, their metal clubs held aloft.

Scalpel turned towards them, his eyes narrowing.

The Nagas swung the clubs down on Scalpel.

Who had dropped his sabre so he could catch the clubs, one in each hand. The blows stopped dead.

As Scalpel snarled and shoved the clubs back the way they had come, slamming each one into the face of the Naga that wielded it, hammering the ends again and again as the Nagas lost their grip, buckled, and collapsed. Scalpel snorted and tossed both bloody weapons down on the giants.

As bullets tore through his cloak, one just glancing his arm, but that was enough to make him fall to one knee, hissing in pain...as Morgue ran over and fired over his body, shooting the four Lancehead attackers with tranquilizers. But no sooner had they collapsed then twenty more came to replace them.

"We're too exposed! We need cover!" Scalpel hissed as he stood up and fled from the firepower, Morgue with him. "There! That stairway!"

Said stairway, which was in a small room that the top of the stairs was encased in, was being guarded by three Lanceheads. Unfortunately, they were distracted by Beast Boy's annihilation of their fellows nearby as a polar bear, and hence Morgue blasted one while Scalpel grabbed the other two and tossed them aside, kicking the door open as he and Morgue took cover inside the tiny room, the Lanceheads pelting it with fire as Morgue leaned out the doorway and returned their shots. Scalpel cursed to himself, feeling useless. Maybe he should have picked up one of the enemies' guns instead of holding onto his sabre...

As the Lanceheads split apart, revealing a Naga as he aimed another four-tube missile launcher at the stairwell.

"...Oh phooey." Morgue said.

Scalpel said nothing: he just grabbed his girlfriend and leapt backwards as the Naga fired, the two of them falling down the middle of the stairwell as the top of it exploded, raining down flaming metal as the two tumbled down.

A few stories below, Scalpel slammed back first into the floor, his breath exploding from his lungs from both the impact and Sophie landing on top of him, as he'd planned. He gasped for air, even as familiar pain shot through his body and flaming wreckage landed around him.

"Scalpel! Are you okay?" Morgue said frantically, as she scrambled off the alien and tried to check on him as he gasped and coughed.

"I'll...walk it off." Scalpel grunted, trying to get up and failing, falling back down to one knee.

"You big doofus! Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Morgue said with concern.

"I'd rather avoid it if possible..." Scalpel said, as his ears twitched. He heard something that sounded distinct from falling shrapnel.

And then they started raining down, clanking and clattering down the stairs and onto the floor near the pair, as both looked at what had been tossed down.

Grenades.

"Definitely." Scalpel said, his pain forgotten as he surged up and ran for the door, smashing it in as he and Sophie ran for it...

Too close, as the grenades detonated and blasted a searing blow of heat and impact through the door, sending both Titans flying and tumbling into the room they'd fled into before they came to a stop.

"...ow." Morgue groaned, as she tried to push her hair out of her eyes. "Maybe there's something for using you...as a cushion...after all..." The superheroine said, as she looked up properly...

And saw the predicament she and Scalpel had ended up in. The stairwell they'd fled into and down was where a massive group of reinforcements had gathered, about to charge up said stairs and battle the Titans...except now it seemed two Titans had come to them.

Talk about out of the frying pan.

"...get behind me." Scalpel hissed, as he hoisted himself up and pointed his sabre at the masses of Kobra troops.

"...Scalpel, they already are." Morgue said, and Scalpel jerked around to see that Kobra troops HAD circled around them, cutting off their escape. They were completely surrounded.

"...well then, looks like I earn today's wage." Scalpel growled, as he spat some bloody saliva onto the ground.

The Kobra Lanceheads all aimed a myriad of guns at the pair.

"...sometimes I hate this job."

* * *

Savior, armed with two stolen guns, blew another Copperhead out of the sky, and then gave the empty guns to a nearby Blackadder, in a rather _firm_ manner, sending the ninja flying away. Nearby, Beast Boy smashed through a Naga as a hippopotamus again and then turned into a gigantic brachiosaur and used his massive tail to bat two Copperheads out of the air. One plummeted towards the sea, and the other fell down at an angle past Beast Boy…

And right at Savior, who was currently punching a Lancehead out. He, like Beast Boy saw the shadow and whirled around.

Unlike Beast Boy, he had a few more seconds warning.

"OH SH…!" Savior yelled as he ran for it.

The rest of the word was cut off in the explosion as the Copperhead crashed into the ground and detonated, tumbling after Savior in a big fireball of death, as Savior sprinted across the deck as fast as he could, the burning metal ball right on his heels…

Until Savior came to the giant hole the Death Adder dropping his bomb had made, and he leapt, jumping across the span as the burning helicopter fell in, plummeting down through the wrecked lower floors and tearing through the ship even worse, as Savior landed on the other end of the hole...

And the edge broke, sending Savior tumbling into the chasm after the helicopter. He yelled and spun, as he bounced off the wall, swung off a convenient piece of wreckage, crashed into another wall, slid down, leapt off, grabbed ahold of another piece, and flung himself forward as the Shimmer formed a shield in front of him, as he aimed for what looked like a door in his spinning, out of control vision.

He was right, as he crashed through the damaged metal framework and rolled across the floor beyond before stopping.

Savior lay there for a moment, panting on the ground, and then he shook his head and looked up.

And once again found himself face to chest with a Naga.

Savior recoiled, and even in the motion he realized like last time, the Naga wasn't alone.

In fact, there seemed to be even more of them then last time, as they gathered around Savior, chuckling nastily. Savior had made a note in the back of his head that the Naga presence wasn't as strong as it should have been on the deck. It seemed they had been heading up to assist.

And much like a pair of his teammates, Savior had somehow ended up in the room that put him smack in the middle of them. Life either hated him or it had a sick sense of humor.

"Fresh fish." One said, as they began to close in.

Savior didn't even want to consider the implication of those words.

* * *

Elsewhere, various Kobra minions ran about, arming and fueling the next wing of Death Adders that were about to be launched.

Until the door to the hanger exploded inward via a sonic cannon blast, and Cyborg strolled in, weapon at the ready.

"Finally! Your stupid ship has worse directions then the New York subway!" Cyborg cursed as he ran to the attack. While all the Kobra minions had some degree of combat training, the Lanceheads in the hanger were nearly all pilots or mechanics. Within a minute, Cyborg had dispatched them all.

"Now, let's see..." Cyborg said, as he looked at the Death Adders, lined up and ready for launch (save one, which had TRIED to launch and found a sonic cannon to the rear as you took off was counterproductive to the process). "Eeney meeny miney moe, catch a cobra by the toe, well they don't have toes so oh well, I guess...I'll..." Cyborg trailed off as he looked past the Death Adders.

And saw it, slightly away from the other planes. And the reason for it was quite clear. Cyborg grinned wickedly.

"And these idiots think they're the ones chosen."

* * *

And while his teammates battled and warred in all their myriad ways, Robin, with one final kick knocking his last Lancehead foe aside, reached the edge of the deck, standing between the two massive snake statues that doubled as energy cannons, and looked down on his Tower.

At the massive plume of red smoke swirling around its top, said plume leading up into the sky and beyond Robin's sight.

"That can't mean ANYTHING good." Robin said.

Then Robin abruptly became aware of a crawling noise, and looked up as the Diamondback slithered around the snake statue to the left and reared up, opening its mouth to spew fire…

Before its head was torn apart by dark energy, and the body fell into the bay below as Raven joined Robin as his side.

"Damnation." Raven said softly. "The ritual is almost complete."

"That's it then. I'm going down there, even if I have to jump!" Robin said, as he actually backed up as if he was planning to take a flying leap off the front of the _Divine Scar_. Raven wasn't sure if he meant it, but she put out an arm to stop him anyway.

"Wait…!"

As a few hundred feet behind the pair, Starfire dodged around another Copperhead only to find a Death Adder screaming at her, and Starfire could barely dodge as the plane swooped past, far too close and distracted by the almost-collision…

As Beast Boy smashed another Copperhead with his brachiosaur tail, and the machine lurched to the side…

As the Death Adder crashed into it, blowing it to scrap as the helicopter in turn tore apart the airplane, as it went into a death spin right past the front of the _Scar,_ the movement catching Robin and Raven's attention, as the plane spiraled right towards the tower top.

And as it hit the red smoke, it DISINTIGRATED, the plane and man within turning instantly to the same dust, the entire thing gone in less then a second. The whirling smoke wasn't even disturbed.

"…on second hand…damn." Robin said, as he realized the implication. "Raven, can you teleport me down there?"

"Through a barrier like that? The odds are better of seeing your master doing the Macarana then us warping through a barrier like that alive!" Raven retorted.

"THEN DO SOMETHING!" Robin yelled, grabbing Raven by the front of her outfit, an action that clearly shocked the young goth. Robin immediately realized his error and let her go, though his panic didn't reside.

"We need to get down there! Can you teleport into the Tower itself?"

"It's more likely, but I suspect the barrier will be blocking the roof from below as well as around. We'd be just as locked out."

"Damn it…" Robin lamented, tearing at his hair. He had to think of a solution, he might only have seconds to save the world…

"Robin, I'm sorry. Teleporting can be very complicated sometimes. I might be able to work a spell to get through, but I don't know…" Raven said, as she put her fingers to her forehead in concentration. "Maybe if I had a beacon or something I could lock onto it and use it to guide us…"

"What? A beacon?" Robin said.

"Something that related to us, that has our touch, our essence, it would eliminate my need to teleport blind, I might be able to forge a path with it where I never could otherwise, like a picture, or, or a necklace one of us wore…" Raven said, and trailed off as she saw the light in Robin's eyes. He'd realized something.

"Raven, I have an idea. But it will require us to roll the dice. Would you make that risk with me?" Robin asked, offering a hand.

"…let's hope it doesn't land on snake eyes." Raven said, and slammed her hand into Robin's.

* * *

The link was complete.

King Snake felt like a god already, and he knew it would grow to even grander proportions when Apophis truly came through.

And now was that time.

King Snake pulled Susan's gag off, and she began to scream, shrieking in terror. King Snake drank it in, let it wash over the alter, letting the chaos within her prepare her, as he raised the knife.

"For you, great Apophis, I shed the blood of this sacrifice. May you ride its wave into this world, to devour and slay all who would oppose us! I CALL!" King Snake bellowed, as he flipped the knife over.

It slashed down.

And King Snake recoiled as the golden projectile buried itself in his hand, snarling in pain as the bladed weapon bit deep and caused his fingers to spasm, dropping the knife. He blinked, and then looked at the weapon that had stopped him when he was so close to completing his task.

It was a golden metal R.

"Party's over Dorrance." Robin said, the black wisps of Raven's teleportation still fading from around him. It had been a long time since he'd pulled out the old Robinrang: he kept it in his utility belt mostly for sentiment. But it had seemed appropriate now, especially considering Kiing Snake's trophy, the R from Robin's chest plate, clearly visible on his sash even from this distance, the R that had stood over Robin's heart that had served as the beacon to let Raven teleport through the barrier and bring Robin with her. "You've invited enough guests, and you've made a mess of my place."

King Snake pulled the R from his hand, but he seemed strangely unperturbed. In fact, he looked almost eager.

"Ahhhhhhhh…so you prove to be less of a disappointment after all. Though as it turns out, you prove to be quite an eyesore. But neither matters, Robin." King Snake said. "The link is forged. Apophis is nearly here, and he cannot be turned back now. The end is inevitable!"

"It was inevitable the last 17 times I heard that line too. I swear, you villains need a new book of material." Robin said.

King Snake hissed, sounding a lot more like a snake then Robin would like.

"I will feed your corpses to Apophis: he will crunch your souls beneath his teeth for eternity." King Snake said, as he reached down and lifted up a combination rapier/scimitar, a true snake-fang sword, the _Grand Crest_, and held it before him.

As his long tongue flickered out between his lips. His thin, forked tongue. Robin tensed, realizing that whatever lay just beyond the boundaries, be it Apophis or something else, it had made King Snake more like his namesake then ever.

"Robin…" Raven said.

"No Raven. You save the hostage and see if you can end this madness. I'll keep King Snake busy." Robin said, as he pulled out several Birdarangs and formed them into his own crimson sword.

"I sense terrible power within him."

"Well, I couldn't do any worse then I did before." Robin joked. Then his eyes narrowed. "Go."

Raven teleported away.

And King Snake leapt at Robin, who raised his sword.

The blades met, and the battle was on anew.


	5. Arsenal Of Democracy

Part 5: Arsenal of Democracy

Starfire threw herself at another wing of Copperheads, smashing the cockpits to pieces and throwing the pilots out onto the deck before destroying the helicopters. At least that was her outline: circumstances didn't allow her to always be able to do this.

A flurry of gatling gun shots arced towards her and she returned fire, her warrior's instincts taking over. Green destruction erupted from her eyes and two more Copperheads exploded as their fuel tanks were lanced open and ignited. Starfire blasted forward, more helicopters on her tail…until someone down on the deck blew them up for her: at least some of her friends were still alive.

Jet-pack equipped Lanceheads appeared in front of her, and Starfire juked and dodged… but despite that, one was able to slash her across the abdomen. Starfire cursed him in Tamaranian and kicked him in the chest, then hurled him into one of his comrades.

Pain shot up Starfire's spine as another blade caught her, this time near the small of the back.

"Kobra!" shouted the Lancehead soldier.

Starfire smashed him across the face with a backhand.

"Ugh, I am growing greatly annoyed by your troubling persistence," Starfire warned, smashing a few more Lanceheads. But more kept coming, as one shot her in the back with a stun weapon. She promptly turned and smashed his face in, then tore his jetpack off.

"You would be wise to cease this at once before I grow angry. You will not enjoy my company when I am angry!"

If the Kobra soldiers cared about or even understood what she said, they didn't give any indication of it, rather three more came out of nowhere, two Lanceheads with their jetpacks going full force, slammed into Starfire and sent her careening across the sky…and into one of the three main launching bays for the jets, until both attackers and victim slammed into a refueling line for one of the aforementioned Death Adders.

Starfire promptly tore the fuel line off and began beating the Lanceheads with the nozzle until they stopped shouting and fell unconscious. Next to her, a flight attendant dressed in a simple uniform gasped at the brutality of the alien's attacks. Well, at least, that's what Starfire _figured _the guy was gasping at. She still didn't quite see why humans were so shocked when violence, she felt, was well deserved.

Perhaps it was just because humans tended to be so _ruthle… _er**… nice**_._

"I am sorry you had to see that," Starfire apologized. She turned to leave and go help out the Titans—more Copperheads were flying in from where she could see out of the launching pad, coming up from seemingly nowhere. _How do these men afford so many of the expensive vehicles?_

As she began to walk away, she heard footsteps behind her, and turned to see the flight attendant sneaking up behind her, a dagger with the hilt shaped like a snake raised to strike her.

Starfire gasped and dodged out of the way, then flew over the man's head and grabbed his shirt. She hurled him across the launching area into a nearby Death Adder, then landed. She clinched her fist as a burning anger raised in her stomachs.

"That accomplishes it!" she roared. Starbolts erupted from her hands, eyebeams from her face, as she began tearing through the Death Adders left and right. Starfire smashed off a wing, then blew the entire fuselage to pieces with a Starbolt. She turned and cut off the nose of another, kicking it out of the launch exit and the _Scar, _it's wheels still clamped to the runway and shorn from its body. The power erupting from her hands and eyes grew in size and brightness as more and more of the planes were destroyed, Starfire tearing every one of them apart, breaking their refueling stations, and smashing through any solders that got on her way. By the time she was done smashing nearly every plane in the hanger, she was wreathed in green brilliance.

"What the Kobra is wrong with you!?" asked a nearby Blackadder, trembling in a corner against a lift that accessed the below-floors.

Starfire turned to him and bellowed. "I HAVE **_HAD _**IT WITH THESE _**VARBLERNELKING**_ SNAKES IN THESE _**VARBLERNEKLKING **_PLANES!"

Then she unleashed all the righteous fury she had built up, a massive starbolt the size of a minivan tearing through the launch bay, the heat radiation from it utterly melting every piece of machinery in a ten-yard radius around it before it flew out of the _Scar_ and exploded, sending several more Copperheads plummeting to their respective dooms.

Starfire fell to her knees, breathing heavily, then smiled. "I feel much better now."

"Um...Kobra?" the Blackadder prompted, rushing at her with a bo staff.

Starfire promptly punched him in the face.

* * *

As Gauntlet stopped dead.

"I feel a great disturbance in the Force...like a long-expected line was cried out and...oh right, of course. That line." Gauntlet said, as he leapt and kicked off his blade, knocking away an attacking Blackadder. "Really... the Internet is why we can't have nice things. The Internet decided that _Snakes On A Plane_ was the best movie ever... until it actually came out! After they went back and remade it just the way the Internet wanted it! I don't understand it!"

"...HUH?" Said a very confused attacking Lancehead.

"I know! I think the Internet doesn't know WHAT the hell it wants! I'm glad you understand! Most of you minions are too dumb to know what I'm talking about!"

"...HUH?"

Gauntlet ducked under the Lancehead's slow attack, uppercutted him out of his boots, and ran on with his gouge process, muttering that the minions' union was seriously lacking, if none of them had the spare time to talk about movies online.

* * *

More Lanceheads went flying as Beast Boy smashed through them as a cape buffalo, before the changeling whirled around and bucked an attacking Blackadder as a donkey. He turned back to normal as a Naga charged in, swinging his energy axe. The big gorilla found out he was no match for a REAL gorilla, as Beast Boy relieved him of his weapon, then his consciousness, and then his vertical base, as he hurled the giant into some more Lanceheads.

And then came under fire by three Copperheads, as Beast Boy yelped and dove for cover, and then finding no cover made his own, as he transformed into an Ankylosaurus and used the dinosaur's thick back armor to absorb the bullets, as he swung and batted away more Lanceheads with his club tail...

As the Copperheads launched missiles at the dinosaur.

"YEEEP!" Beast Boy yelped, as he tried to dodge. Too late, as several of the miniature explosives slammed into his armored back, sending him tumbling several feet and bowling over more Lanceheads and Blackadders. But as tough as dinosaur armor could be, it hadn't evolved to handle high explosives, and the pain forced Beast Boy to turn back to normal, clutching his burned side.

The Copperheads aimed their guns at him again, as did more Lanceheads and Nagas. Beast Boy gulped.

And then his communicator crackled.

"GET DOWN B!"

It was Cyborg's voice, and Beast Boy didn't question it, as he turned into a turtle and did what they did best.

As the black and gold plane spun towards the _Divine Scar_, bearing down on the giant skyship as it's underside opened up, a singular enlarged missile emerging and arming.

As Cyborg sat in the cockpit, his systems hooked up to the machine. This wasn't another Death Adder, this was King Snake's personalized plane, a beyond bleeding edge modification of an F-35 Lightning II. The fact that King Snake was BLIND and had his own PLANE should have indicated the degree of adaptation and improvement that the aircraft had been subjected to. Several seconds hooked up to it allowed Cyborg to turn said adaptations to his advantage.

King Snake had called it the Ouroboros, after the symbol of the serpent swallowing its own tail, a metaphor for infinity. Cyborg called it Cyborg Kicks Your Ass, Phase II, as he fired off the missile towards the _Divine Scar_...as it split apart into a eruption of smaller rockets and bombs.

The Copperheads exploded, blown apart by the rockets, as the bomblets hit the deck and blew as well, hurling the Kobra troops everywhere. Beast Boy stuck his head out of his shell and then turned back to a human as Cyborg swooped past Beast Boy...

As the Ouroboros abruptly slowed, stabilizing hatches opening on it's top and bottom as its main engine shifted downward and put the plane in a steady hover, as the machine slowly turned around in a smooth circle, hovering above and just off the side of the _Divine Scar_ as Beast Boy blinked in susprise at the sight. He didn't know much about jets, but he knew from flying in the T-Ship that acceleration and mobility often didn't mesh well. That was clearly not the case here.

"Hey B, the skies just got a little more friendly!" Cyborg said, his voice coming from Beast Boy's communicator.

As another extension emerged from the top of the right wing, and Beast Boy ducked as a piercing green energy ray swept over him and through several Copperheads behind him, blowing them to pieces. As that cannon retracted, Beast Boy heard a loud mechanical hissing...and ducked down as Cyborg engaged the powerful 25-mm gatling gun known as the GAU-12 Equalizer on the plane and blew away the three Diamondbacks that had tried to sneak up on his teammate.

Beast Boy stood back up, looking behind him with a touch of alarm and then back at Cyborg.

"Now why don't you get off your butt and come watch my back?" Cyborg said.

"WHAT? You think YOU'RE the star here-BEHIND YOU!" Beast Boy yelled, as twin Death Adders slashed through the air behind Cyborg, each firing a streaking missile towards Cyborg's plane.

"I don't think so." Cyborg said, as his connected computers calculated the precise microsecond needed and then sent the command, as the right pair of stabilizing thrusters ignited as the other briefly cut off, sending Cyborg into a last second sideways roll, the missiles streaking past him, missing by a few feet. Had Cyborg been flying anything else, the proximity based sensors in the missiles would have blasted him anyway. The Ouroboros, however, had a proximity and radar nullifying "dead field".

Said missiles flew on, their systems scrambled by the defense and unable to return, as the Death Adders also blasted past Cyborg as he righted himself.

"My turn." Cyborg growled, as the stabilizers closed and the main engine righted itself, as Cyborg took off after the twin jets, locking onto them in turn.

"Quid pro quo." Cyborg said, as he fired off two missiles of his own. The Death Adders immediately broke apart and went into defensive maneuvers, automatically releasing radar jamming chaff as well.

The missiles streaked on, closing in on both.

"Ever heard of vision-based guidance systems?" Cyborg said to himself.

As Cyborg's missiles, backed up by line of sight target acquisition, slammed into the Death Adders and blew both out of the sky.

"Now you have." Cyborg said. "Oh yes. Booyah."

Beast Boy watched as Cyborg turned around, streaking past the _Divine Scar_ as his gatling cannon blew apart another Copperhead before zapping past Beast Boy again.

"You gonna stand there B or are you just gonna help by screaming?"

"Why you...that's it! TRY AND KEEP UP CY!" Beast Boy said, as he ran and leapt off the end of the deck, turning into a massive pterodactyl whose huge wings immediately screwed up a Copperhead, sending it crashing into another, as Beast Boy flew on, shrieking across the sky.

* * *

"The Ouroboros has been compromised!" Minion D or whatever his title was reported to his superior, whose exposed face somehow turned even redder.

"THEN SHOOT IT DOWN! WHERE ARE THE REINFORCEMENTS?" The Kobra Organizer roared.

"The Nagas and Lancehead units have been delayed, but the Lachesis is on it's way up! And the patrolling units have almost finished being assembled! But they'll need a little more time to get here as they have to do a wide arc around the alter as you requested…"

"THEY DON'T HAVE A LITTLE MORE TIME! GET THEM HERE! KILL THOSE ACCURSED CHILDREN! KILL THEM ALL!"

* * *

Sparks flew as the swords of King Snake and Robin, the blades crashing against each other with a hollow ringing noise, the two fighting more like they were wielding heavy longswords rather then light striking weapons.

In Robin's case it was a necessity, as the first blow nearly wrenched his weapon from his hands despite him having a firm grip on it. When he'd tightened his grip even more to block the second strike, he'd felt the impact vibrate up his arms. The third strike he blocked painfully twisted his right wrist, the tendons coming from within an inch of snapping, as Robin's eyes narrowed at it all. He dodged the next blow and slashed his own sword out.

King Snake blocked it, the weapons locking together, and Robin finally confirmed what he'd suspected from the man's comments and his movements: King Snake was no longer blind. And since blindness didn't come and go like a cold, there was only one way that could have happened: the power of whatever King Snake was summoning had healed him…and augmented him.

"So you understand, child! NOW DESPAIR!" King Snake declared.

And then he pushed forward with incredible strength, breaking through Robin's guard like it was nothing, and Robin found himself flying backwards, hurled through the air like he was a doll…

His instincts screamed at him as he hit the ground, and instead of breaking his fall he risked breaking his arm as he grabbed off another Birdarang from his belt and slammed it into the ground, stopping himself dead and nearly yanking his arm out of his socket.

As the toe of his left boot brushed the red smoke barrier, and Robin yelled and yanked his foot away. He looked at his foot, the top layers of it completely destroyed. If he'd gone backwards a few more inches, he would have lost half his foot.

He was really up against it now. Trapped between a red destructive essence of some chaos god or other…

And as Robin leapt up, King Snake was there, literally appearing from nowhere, he moved so fast, exponentially faster then he had before, as he seized Robin by the throat with a grip of iron.

…and the devil.

"I am the avatar of Apophis! You were helpless before, and now you are NOTHING!" King Snake snarled, and whirled around as he hurled Robin up through the air, as Robin found himself flying across the battlefield and about to crash into the OTHER side of the destroying barrier.

Until he yanked out and fired his grapple, the mechanism burying itself in the T-Tower's roof as Robin slammed on a button with his thumb and drew it trigger-taunt. The whiplash DID dislocate his shoulder this time, and the impact of essentially being slammed into the ground a few feet from the barrier nearly broke his knees. A painful gasp sounded from Robin: Raven had fixed up his previous injuries as best she could but it didn't take much to renew them, let alone such a blow.

King Snake chuckled, sidling along the ground much like a snake would, a motion that would have seemed comical done by most, but with the Kobra master it took on an air of dread menace.

Robin slowly got up, his legs screaming and his left arm limp.

"You rise?" King Snake said. "I swear, you are like this country. You have no idea what you're doing and you don't know when to quit your ignorance."

Robin, surprisingly, chuckled.

"Why Dorrance, I thought this had no nationalistic importance at all. Then again…maybe you're correct. Maybe I am like this country. Because for all my failings and missteps, it doesn't change the fact I'm in the right."

And Robin grabbed his left arm and slammed his shoulder back into his socket, an intense grimace the only expression of pain he allowed himself.

"If there's any ideology here, you corrupted it beyond repair a long time ago. You want to destroy, I won't let you. That is simply that." Robin said, as he picked up his crimson blade again. "Let's go."

King Snake chuckled again, his snake-tongue flickering between his lips.

Then there was a rapid series of blurs, and King Snake was right in front of Robin.

"Yes."

Robin's surprise was kept to microseconds, as he slashed at King Snake.

Except by that time, the villain was behind him, as he buried a kick in the small of Robin's back and sent the teenager flying forth onto his face.

Raven wanted to help, but she'd been given her orders, and she knew what they might entail. Once she accomplished them, she could help Robin. Though part of her wished she'd had the foresight to gather up a teammate or two to assist Robin or her before she'd taken the one way trip through the barrier, but if wishes were horses…

Susan Paniwi had by now stopped screaming as Raven approached. The sorceress tried to put on a comforting smile, but she'd never been very good at that.

"I'm here to help miss. Hang on." Raven said, as she reached out to untie the sacrifice. She wasn't quite sure what that would do, as everything had kept going even after King Snake had been interrupted in his ritual, but it was better then nothing until she worked out just what…

And then she touched the binds, and it coursed through her, dark, terrible power, like she'd grabbed ahold of a live wire, and Raven was hurled back with a cry, slamming into the ground several feet from the alter as the energy coursed through her body a few more seconds and then faded.

Raven gasped. She'd been expecting something and despite that she'd STILL been floored. Apophis was close.

But if that was what happened when she touched his 'Rubicon boat', then it was clear he didn't want the sacrifice being fiddled with. Which just made Raven want to fiddle with her even more.

You know what I mean.

Lamentable descriptions aside, Raven got to her feet and steeled herself, walking back over to the bound girl, as she wreathed her hands in dark energy.

"Release her!" Raven snapped, as she grabbed ahold of the bonds, trying to untie them, but the energy coursed forth anew, slamming through Raven, as Raven tried to hang on and free Susan, but the power didn't lessen, it grew fiercer, blow after blow slamming into Raven's body and mind.

"I…will not…" Raven said, as she began to undo the knots.

And then an echoing bellow sounded inside her head, and Raven reared back, feeling like someone had just taken a jackhammer to her frontal lobe, and then red mist from the barrier coursed inward and around the alter, and Raven found herself being pulled up with unrelenting force, her efforts to resist shattered like a ship on the shoals, as the dread power lashed out at her and drew her in for daring to defy it.

Raven stopped fifteen feet above the alter, bounds of power seizing her arms and legs and spreading them, leaving her prone and helpless, and even as it did Raven could hear the same voice that had bellowed in her head, something ancient and terrible and all-destroying.

_**INTERFERING DEMONSPAWN…THERE ARE FAR GREATER FORCES THEN YOUR FATHER!**_

And as the power tore through Raven anew, she almost believed it.

Almost.

Then she got angry.

"RARGGGGGGH!" Raven snarled, as her own power exploded on her limbs, breaking the invisible bonds that shackled her and repulsing the force that had briefly held her prone. She spun out of the position and gathered herself for a moment, and then looked straight up into the rising red mist that surrounded the Tower and soared off into the sky.

She could see something, not 20 feet from her, a shimmering twist of reality, and just beyond it something lurked, something that had no color her eyes could recognize or shape her brain could comprehend, like the Old Gods Lovecraft had written of, something beyond man's comprehension and belief.

But Raven was no man.

"Apophis." Raven said. "You go no further."

* * *

"Well...isn't this friendly." Morgue said, as her eyes flicked around their grim situation.

"At least it's not pitchforks and torches." Scalpel said, his own dark eyes scanning the room. The Kobra minions still had their guns raised, but they had yet to fire. Scalpel could guess why: they wanted to draw it out. Make them suffer. Forget snakes: there was no poison on this planet that matched what could lurk in humans.

"Drop your weapons." One of them ordered. Considering what he'd seen them do when they thought they'd had Sophie at their mercy, that was about the last thing Scalpel was going to do.

But even if his species WASN'T weak against bullets, he was matched up against far too much firepower to survive or even get close to his opponents. And despite the armor in her costume, Sophie was similarly soft. Virtually all their options ended in brutal death.

"Now!" The Lancehead ordered.

But the alternative was worse. Scalpel would rather go down fighting. But for Sophie to go with him, she didn't deserve that...

"Have I ever mentioned I don't find this situation attractive in the least?" Morgue suddenly said.

And something clicked in Scalpel's mind.

"We wouldn't." The alien replied.

He tossed his sabre down.

And Morgue exploded into a mass of bats, splitting apart and swarming all over the room.

And Scalpel did something that tore his heart apart: he dropped into a crouch and covered his head, needing to not draw any attention, needing to keep the bullets away from him...and holding one hand out and open behind him, even as his veins exploded with fear as all the Lanceheads immediately began shooting at Sophie, trying to bring her down as she scattered all over the room. He saw one bat burst into flame: they might have well have ripped his guts out when that happened. But he couldn't move, not yet, as the seconds ticked by, each one an eternity, as Sophie swarmed around, Lanceheads stumbling into themselves to avoid her and try to get a good shot, as she clustered near a wall briefly and then surged away, as several more bats met gruesome deaths, each cry slamming into Nigel like a Lord sword slash, but he couldn't move, not _YET..._

As with a cry of pain Sophie re-merged, falling to the ground and clutching her bleeding body, as the guns re-focused on her.

And the bomb she'd planted on the wall, lost in her distraction, blew, sending nearby Lanceheads flying and screaming and pelting others with shrapnel as everyone recoiled or went on the defense from the sudden blast.

But there was only one detonation, and the Lanceheads quickly recovered and aimed their weapons anew at the pair, now separated and Sophie hurt, her body having suffered wounds in losing mass from the bats, Sophie unable to siphon off her unique reality-warping talent all onto her outfit. While some Lanceheads checked on _their_ wounded, other let off nasty chuckles, as the smoke drifted out the hole Sophie had blown in the wall, the darkness of Jump City's bay clearly visible in the distance. Sophie had managed to blow a hole right through the hull with the last of her explosives. Expecting help to possible arrive for the Titans, several Lanceheads aimed their weapons there.

But no help came: Starfire and Terra did not charge in and begin kicking ass. Scalpel and Morgue were alone.

"Time to die, freak." One of the Lanceheads said, as he shifted his weapon around, trying to decide what to shoot first.

"...tell me, have you ever heard of the giant snake that tried to swallow an alligator?" Scalpel asked.

And then he hurled the orb Morgue had dropped into his palm as she'd transformed, sending it rolling across the ground.

"BOMB...!" The Lanceheads yelled as they dove for cover.

As Scalpel again crouched down...as his toes dug into the floor and he jammed his hands under his arms, as Morgue went into a similar fetal position.

And...nothing happened. The orb rolled to a stop and laid there.

"...HAH! It's a dud!" One of the Lanceheads said.

"Look who's talking." Morgue murmured.

As the orb abruptly sprang up into the air.

And snapped open, revealing a bright blue shining core.

As Scalpel's sword flew to the orb and slammed against it. The orb did not move. It was a magnet.

An immensely powerful magnet, as the Lanceheads yelled and screamed in surprise as their guns all began following the sword, ripped from their hands, yanked from their side and back hostlers, pulled off the floor, and called to the magnetism orb, all the weapons slamming together into a rough series of layers around the device. Scalpel's hands and feet were made of a mostly non-magnetized alloy, but the device's magnetism was INCREDIBLY powerful, and Scalpel groaned as he felt the tugging at his hands and feet regardless, trying to drag him to the collection. Some of the guns slamming into the mass went off, sending bullets ricocheting through the room and taking down various Lanceheads, the Kobra minions collapsing and screaming as they held their wounds, Scalpel's nerves on their last frayed edge as a few bullets only barely missed him.

And then the last of the guns slammed into the orb, now a giant floating ball of ordnance.

And a faint hum only Scalpel could hear, as he focused on it through all the noise, cut off. The device was powering down, the magnetism no longer drawing anything in. Just keeping the guns there, all collected, for a few more seconds.

And that was all Scalpel needed, as he reared up, charged, and with a furious snarl, leapt and lashed out with his foot, kicking the assembled mass of firearms through the air, knocking a few Lanceheads aside as it flew out of the hole Sophie had blown in the wall.

The guns fell into the ocean, a rain of death.

Scalpel landed, going to one knee as he did so. The Lanceheads stood in stunned shock at this sudden turn, abruptly stripped of their metal weapons.

Morgue grinned under her mask. Sometimes being creative in your choice of gear and possibility-consideration was so rewarding.

"...like I said...snake who tried to eat an alligator. It burst." Scalpel said, as he stood up, a look of dark intensity burning in his eyes. Kobra had already succeeded in making him snap once, and they'd done it again, except this time instead of burning hot, Scalpel was seething cold. For this plan to work, he'd had to put Sophie at risk, let them hurt her. Like they would have done earlier. How many of those men at that would be "death match" were among this gathered legion? What atrocity would they have inflicted on the only human female who'd accepted him so deeply, when so many others had not, would not? What atrocities would they inflict on all the Sophies of the world?

His double-tooth fangs grated across his lower jaw, a sound quite audible in the room.

"It, quite literally, bit off more then it could chew." Scalpel said. "Don't you find that apt...serpents?"

"...KILL HIM!" A random Lancehead screamed. And robbed of sense from their abrupt change of situation and the fanaticism of zealots, the Lanceheads charged in anyway, wielding their wood and plastic clubs, or their snake-dagger wrist blades which were fixed to their limbs, or just their bare hands and their superiority in numbers, as the first one swung a nightstick at Scalpel.

He grabbed the Lancehead's arm and broke it so fiercely he nearly ripped it off at the elbow.

But even as that Lancehead recoiled away, screaming, another stabbed at Scalpel. Scalpel caught the blade under his arm and yanked it back, pulling the Lancehead's shoulder right out of its socket. Another ran at him: Scalpel kicked him in the knee and completely ripped the limb out of it's joint, and then grabbed the next Lancehead's arm and twisted it a full 270 degrees, and then blocked the next one's stab and slashed his clawed arm up, violently dislocating that Lancehead's elbow before he grabbed the next one by the wrist, breaking the wrist with one twist and yank and then the Lancehead's shoulder with another twist and yank...and then they were on him, piling and hammering down...as he hurled them all off, Lanceheads slamming against the walls and floor as he grabbed the one hanging on, swung his arm up, and yanked it down, ripping the Lancehead's shoulder out of his socket and shrugging off the screaming Kobra grunt as he howled his rage and charged into the masses.

The sounds of screams and breaking bones filled the air as Scalpel took every single Lancehead he could get his hands on apart, twisting and maiming, wrecking and snapping. He'd have made a fine avatar for Kali, though that irony was likely lost on the Lanceheads.

As Morgue abruptly leapt up and kicked her nearest Lancehead away, and then judo-tossed another to the ground. She'd lost her tranq pistol in the magnetic feint, but she wasn't about to back down from this group of vicious bullies. Two more came for her: a swarm of bats convinced them what a bad idea that was, and Morgue reformed as they staggered away clawing at their eyes.

As a low, cruel laugh sounded nearby, drawing Sophie's attention.

"Nice work sow." Said the Lancehead...a female Lancehead. Sophie blinked. She couldn't recall if she'd seen any female Kobra minions before. But here was one, looking wickedly at her. If Raven had been around, she might have identified her as the female she'd seen earlier when she'd been masquerading as Terra.

"Hide behind your freak, doing as little as possible. You disgusting pig." The Lancehead said.

Morgue glared in return. She knew exactly what this woman was trying to do. It didn't make it any easier.

"Oh, you disagree? Come on then. Bring your bats. I will cut them ALL down." The female Lancehead, the she-viper (for lack of a better term), as she brought up a knife. Damn, maybe the Kobra troops hadn't lost ALL their metal weapons.

And Sophie had pretty much exhausted all of her own, as well. And here this woman was, saying she had no worth.

It was a familiar refrain.

Morgue decided it was time for a counter argument, as she reached down to her belt, extracting a small circular rod. She snapped it out, revealing it as a police combat baton. She'd had to hold on to make sure the magnetism orb she had hadn't claimed it. Looked like that was a wise choice. But Sophie had always been a smart girl. Of course, no one ever saw that. They just saw her size.

The she-viper laughed again.

"I'll bleed you dry."

And she tossed her knife up and caught it as she switched the blade to a reversed combat position, and she charged at Sophie, as Sophie held her baton at the ready.

The she-viper attacked as fast as her namesake, slashing in rapidly changing patterns as she furiously pressed down on Morgue. The plump vigilante was forced on the defense, barely able to keep up and block the woman's strikes, as the weapons clashed and clanged off each other, various Lanceheads watching.

While Scalpel grabbed another, punching, Lancehead's arm and bent it back nearly 70 degrees before he slashed out and kicked another Lancehead right at the shoulder, snapping the collarbone as he tossed his first target aside, grabbed another, and slammed his face against the Lancehead's mask. The Lancehead flew backwards, as blood ran down Scalpel's head as he grabbed two more attacking Lancehead arms and ripped two more shoulders out of socket with a inhuman bellow.

* * *

King Snake slashed at Robin, his blow knocking aside Robin's sword, his arms having to fully devote themselves to holding on…and with King Snake only using one hand to deliver a backhand slash, it left Robin wide open for his follow up punch, which floored the teenager and nearly dislocated his jaw.

But Robin kept his feet, as he managed to dodge the next blow King Snake made and spun, bringing his sword up as he did and down at King Snake's head. He easily blocked, but Robin had planned for that and went with the movement as King Snake shoved his sword away and slashed at him, Robin ducking under the blade as he grabbed at his utility belt with his right hand.

King Snake brought his sword back, and Robin snapped up and blocked it, somehow holding onto his own sword with one hand for the time it took to snap out his staff and swing it up next to his sword, the second blow actually managing to deflect the sword some as King Snake took a step back, then stabbed at Robin.

Robin jerked to the side, slammed the sword in his left hand down on King Snake's, and then rammed his staff in his right hand up, slamming the end right into King Snake's throat.

He might as well have rammed it into a Mach Abrams tank, for all the good it did. Robin's eyes widened.

King Snake smirked.

Robin never saw the axe kick, as King Snake snapped his leg up and sent Robin flying backwards again, bouncing painfully across the ground before he stopped.

Robin took a deep breath, trying to ignore the pain that was shooting through him, and got up again.

"Do you understand now boy? Even your best efforts mean nothing! I am so much more now, and beyond anything you could ever ascend to!" King Snake crowed.

And then he reared forward and SOMETHING sprayed from his mouth, a green-black ichor that Robin KNEW he shouldn't touch, and so he leapt to the side, the liquid brushing his cape…and melting the high-density titanium weave like a ice cube under hot water.

As King Snake blurred over and slammed a downward punch into Robin's still-airborne form, sending him slamming into the ground.

"And you will eventually realize it." King Snake said, as he lifted his leg and stomped.

His blow dented the metal of the roof, as Robin rolled out of the way, and then avoided the second stomp, as he swung up and interlaced his weapons as King Snake slashed down, trying to cut Robin in half.

And with the strength he was bearing down on Robin, that seemed a likely occurrence soon.

* * *

"S'CUSE ME!" Gauntlet yelled as he cartwheeled, kicking a Lancehead away in mid flip. "PARDON ME! COMIN' THROUGH!" He added, as he flipped again and again, each time kicking away an attacker.

As another Blackadder leapt down, twirling twin katanas.

"YOU BLASTED INFIDE-GAHHHHHHHH!" The Blackadder gasped as Gauntlet pole-vaulted off his Gauntlet-blade and slammed his foot into the Blackadder's throat, sending him staggering backwards, as Gauntlet 'pulled' a piece of his gouge-blade off and smacked the Blackadder over the head with it.

"AGAIN?" Gauntlet said, amazed at how well he was going through these so called ninjas. "What sort of low rent ninjas are you!? You're like the bad kung fu movies where the guy just hires theater students instead of real martial artists! Without the amusing Engrish, at that!"

"KOBRA!" Yelled two more Blackadders as they ran in on each side of Gauntlet, twirling nunchucks.

Gauntlet did a falling split, and the two crashed into each other, falling down dazed.

"I think my mother just threw up in her mouth a little." Gauntlet groused as he slid up. "Fine. I'll provide the skill. AND the Engrish!"

"DIE YOU...!" Yelled a Lancehead as he charged and tried to stab Gauntlet with his wrist blades...as Gauntlet juked aside and slammed an elbow into the back of the Lancehead's skull.

"For the clever opponent, Injure Increase!" Gauntlet said...as a Naga charged after the Lancehead, holding a giant electrified mace. Gauntlet saw him coming...and charged as well, leaping up.

"I will use my strength to LET YOU SHUT UP!" Gauntlet yelled, slamming the gouge blade down on the Naga so hard he almost drove the giant through the deck of the _Divine Scar._ Gauntlet pushed him aside...as a Diamondback leapt at Gauntlet, tail drill aimed for his chest. It met the Gauntlet instead, as Gauntlet seized it with his energy and smashed it into the ground.

"Uh..." Gauntlet said...as twin Copperheads flew at him, firing their gatling laser cannons.

Gauntlet's gouge-blade returned as he cleaved both helicopters in half, his blades instantly turning back into grasping strands as he seized and ripped the laser gatling guns off the destroyed machines, pulling them down into his arms as the tendrils balanced them and lowered their firing output from lethal to painful.

"GET A SILK BAG FROM THE GRAVEYARD DUCK TO LIVE LONGER!" Gauntlet bellowed as he opened fire, blowing away Lanceheads, Blackadders, Diamondbacks, Nagas, and even one Copperhead in a wide swath before him before the gun's power cells burned out.

"I...okay, I think I've milked this idea for about all it's worth." Gauntlet said as he tossed the empty guns away. Reforming his massive cutting blade, Gauntlet skipped back to his gouge and resumed cutting along the giant airship.

* * *

Susan Paniwi should really have considered herself lucky. She was witnessing a once in many lifetimes event: a battle between a master sorceress and a deity of chaos.

Though I suppose it's understandable why she was scared out of her mind. And why she fainted shortly after it began, her mind and body no longer able to handle the stress.

Raven didn't need an audience anyway, as she thrust out her hands, her dark power repelling the surging destructive mist/smoke that swirled around the tower.

Apophis bellowed in her head again, and Raven recoiled, blood exploding from her noise as the inhuman voice slammed up against her tethered boundaries to reality.

_**YOUR SUFFERING WILL BE LEGENDARY, EVEN IN THE MANY REALMS OF HELL!**_

Power poured forth from the anomaly that Apophis lay beyond, and Raven snarled and threw up a dark shield, the deadly eruption slamming against Raven's own talent and pushing Raven back.

She held, barely, but her shield didn't completely, as energy pierced through several cracks and tore into Raven, ripping bloody wounds across her arms and torso. But she did not scream. She would not give Apophis the satisfaction.

_**PATHETIC WENCH!**_

The bolt was too quick to defend, so quick Raven was barely aware it was coming, as it slammed through her right eye. The attack did not damage the delicate tissue, it was not that kind of attack, but from the burning agony that exploded through Raven's whole being, losing an eye was preferable.

This time, she screamed.

* * *

And Sophie grunted as she kept up her defense, her baton stopping every attempted gutting the she-viper attempted. But the female was utterly relentless, as she hissed and slashed, carving her blade through the air in rapid wide strokes, Sophie trying to deflect every one...

And failing, as the blade got through, slashing a line on Morgue's side. She backed up a few steps, gasping and clutching the wound with her free hand. The she-viper smiled coldly, and resumed her intense barrage. Morgue hefted her combat baton and met her head on, the weapons clashing, sparks shooting from the rapid, furious impacts.

And it seemed even Scalpel wasn't aware of his love's danger. He was utterly lost in his destroying rage, as he grabbed the leg of a Lancehead that stupidly tried to kick him and dislocated his knee with one swift twist. He slammed out his leg and broke one Lancehead's femur, and then spun away from a nightstick swing, grabbed the back of the man's arm, and twisted so hard in a snapping loop the Lancehead spun twice before hitting the ground, before Scalpel himself spun, clamped his arm around a Lancehead's neck that had come up from his side, grabbed the man's arm, and broke it against his body before he hurled him into one of his fellows.

Whether it was denial or delusion, the Lanceheads kept coming. But a 360 roundhouse smashed every single attacker away from Scalpel as they tried to surround him, as Scalpel grabbed another Lancehead's arm, spun it around and broke it over his shoulder, and then fended off another Lancehead's frantic blows with a few swift hand blocks before he let the Lancehead run forward into him, Scalpel dodging around to his side, swiftly hooking his left arm, and yanking it out of his shoulder with a violent crunch.

As baton and knife slashed and twisted, the irresistible blade meeting the unmovable object...

Which moved, as with a quick deceptive arm movement the she-viper slashed open Morgue again, this time at the shoulder. Morgue backed up a few steps again, as the she-viper gave a cold grin Morgue was beginning to hate.

"Worthless." The she-viper said, and attacked again.

But despite her wounds, Morgue kept up her defense, blocking the attacks as the weapons blurred against each other...as Morgue's strikes suddenly began altering. No longer pure passive blocks, one of them became an aggressive one, using her baton to strike the knife away instead of just blocking it. The weapons clashed several more times, as Morgue ducked and weaved herself, as she worked in another aggressive block, and then another, as the she-viper's wide strikes were stopped and deflected...

As Sophie deflected another swing and then suddenly jerked her baton around, getting around the she-viper's guard as she slammed her weapon onto the Kobra minion's back. The she-viper's eyes went wide, even as Sophie retreated. Ignoring her lucky shot, the she-viper resumed her furious attack, slashing as she forced her way forward, driving Morgue back, as she abruptly leapt and spun, slashing her knife down. Morgue blocked it with her baton, but the impact pushed her back even more, as the she-viper grinned and followed it up as she landed, stabbing out with her knife...

As Morgue abruptly stopped and did the same with her baton. And Morgue's weapon had the longer range.

The she-viper's eyes went wide as Morgue rammed the tip into her ribs, driving _her_ back as pain bloomed in her chest...as Morgue followed it up with a swinging blast into the she-viper's rib cage. The Kobra female stumbled back, her shoulders rapidly rising and falling as she stared in amazement. How had that fat pig moved so fast?

It didn't matter! She was DEAD MEAT! The she-viper twisted and set herself back into a combat pose. Sophie stood, baton at the ready.

As the she-viper charged in, and the weapons collided once more.

* * *

And from a deadly storm, we come to the eye of a hurricane.

Savior rolled his fingers, feeling his knuckles pop, as he glanced around at the many Nagas around him, some grinning, and some intense, but all wanting to tear him apart.

Savior beat them to it, as he yelled and spun, becoming a deadly dervish of lashing, cutting Shimmer strands, and the Nagas in front of him were forced back briefly as the power slashed at them, cutting their armor and drawing blood.

Savior stopped, breathing heavily. He'd done virtually nil on the damage front.

And he seemed to have encouraged the Nagas, as several looked at each other, and then Savior noted the same subtle move as they all pressed something inside their hand with their middle finger.

And then all the Nagas stiffened and began to snarl and roar, their muscles bulging and surging just like before, as something coursed through their bodies…and confirmed Savior's suspicions. He, like Robin, had had a lot of time to think while they'd carefully arranged their escape.

"I happen to know a thing or two about muscle development." Savior said: whether the Nagas heard him over their own snarling roars or were even aware of him speaking, Savior didn't know, and he didn't really care. "I've studied on it for my own self. And I know of the shortcuts people can take. And considering the sheer size of your muscles, not to mention your actions before and now, I'm pretty sure you're injecting yourself with a super-steroid. Specifically, the one Bane used to break the Batman: Venom."

The Nagas were too busy finishing up their battle roars to answer. Savior didn't care.

"But Venom has some serious drawbacks. It's what brought Bane down. But no one realizes just how sharp the other side of the sword is until they feel it." Savior said, as he tensed. "If you're all injecting Venom, and I don't see any tubes in your heads to feed it directly into your brain, then there's only one other place that it can be injected directly into to achieve maximum impact…"

And the Nagas charged.

And Savior leapt at one, dodging the bladed knuckles the Naga wore, as he flipped over the giant, forming his own set of Shimmer blades on his fingers as his eyes locked on the bulge he was looking for.

"…the base of your SPINE!" Savior yelled, and slashed out. His fingers tore through the armored section, and he was rewarded as greenish-yellow liquid sprayed out, intermixed with some blood.

As the Naga seized and began to scream, the Venom injection interrupted in mid-jolt, and the Naga's synapses, already ramped up to the extreme, found the bottom dropping out without warning, sending his brain on a frenzied tear that caused excruciating feedback to the giant's body, as he collapsed, thrashing and screaming and banging his head on the ground to stop the pain. The sight was enough to even give the Venom-pumped Nagas pause, if only a second.

Then they bellowed again and stampeded once more to crush Savior underfoot.

But by that time he was already moving, running at one Naga and sliding between his legs as he slashed out a Shimmer strand and wrecked that Naga's Venom injector, even as another strand grabbed him and hurled him towards the wall, as more strands met the wall and let Savior come off it at a tight angle that let him get behind two more Nagas and slash through their injectors, as Savior tucked, rolled, used the Shimmer to spring off his hands, and leapt over another Naga as his leg lashed out, Shimmer blades shooting from his boot and impaling the Venom injector before ripping it out.

And then Savior REALLY went crazy, as nearly 20 strands of the energy erupted from his body and slashed, slid, and lanced across the room, even as Savior ran, jumped, and bounced off the walls and ceiling like a mad pinball, as the Nagas fell into complete and utter panic, trying to fight back while watching their _own_ backs. But there was only so much room, and the advantage the Nagas had thought they had in it leaving Noel no room to escape had turned against them as they crashed and tripped over each other in their efforts. Flesh tore. Venom sprayed. Screams came from throats that had never really known pain, an experience that was paying them back with interest.

Savior landed near a Naga, rolled around him, and lanced a kick into the side of his knee, the limb snapping inward as the Naga crumbled, letting Savior slam two powerful bludgeon lines into his forehead, before the Shimmer threw him across the room and he slipped around another Naga, grabbing his feet and yanking them out from under him, the Naga breaking his fall with his face, as Savior leapt up and stomped on the back of the Naga's head to ensure he stayed down. One leveled a massive energy weapon at him, but Savior smacked it aside and the Naga shot one of his companions, and even as he realized that fact another Naga crashed into him as Savior leapt up, rapidly crawled across the ceiling, and then reached down the Shimmer, grabbed the Naga's heads, and slammed them together once, twice, three, four times, before he finally let them slump to the ground.

He landed, his face a mask of intense, cold rage, as he lanced his fingers together, recalling the many myriad strands back into himself, wrapping the Shimmer around his hands instead, layer after later to increase the density of the energy as much as possible, and then he swung his arms in a hammer blow across a nearby Naga's face, then took two more steps and did it again, then went to another Naga agonizing over his Venom shutoff and slammed it up across his jaw, and then across the jaw of another, and then, as one writhed at his feet, Savior brought it down once, and then again, until the Naga was still.

And that was it: the Nagas that weren't unconscious were in no state left to fight, as Savior lifted himself up from his crouch and unlaced his fists, as he took a few deep breaths and looked at what he had wrought. Last time, they'd crushed him. But they hadn't killed him. Their mistake. Noel hoped they never stopped making it.

"Hmph." Savior said, as he dismissively rubbed under his nose. "Winners don't use drugs."

And Savior turned with a swirl of jacket and headed off into the _Divine Scar_. One grudge settled.

And now...

"...Yankee doodle came to town, riding on a pony..." Savior hummed softly to himself. "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni. Yankee doodle keep it up, yankee doodle dandy..."

* * *

The era of dogfights had supposedly come to an end: planes and flying tactics had simply passed it by.

But no one had ever told Cyborg that, as he blasted through the air above Jump City bay, as two Death Adders bore down on him from the other side. One of them broke forward, as a missile streaked from its wing.

"If you say so." Cyborg said, as his plane flew towards the missile, the Death Adders right behind it. "Now..."

Cyborg's mechanical eye locked onto the approaching missile...and below him, his gatling cannon swirled to follow it.

"Watch this."

And Cyborg squeezed the trigger, as the gatling gun blazed bullets and actually BLEW THE MISSILE OUT OF THE AIR, as Cyborg and the Death Adders found themselves alone in their charge towards each other...

As Cyborg flicked his eye towards the firing plane...and as the two passed each other the top of Cyborg's wing opened and the laser cannon emerged, as Cyborg line-of-sighted and sliced off the Death Adder's wing as the two zoomed past each other, the jet plummeting into the water...

As another Death Adder swooped up, having taken advantage of the situation to come in behind Cyborg. And this pilot wasn't taking chances: he'd fire every single air to air missile at the heretic who had dared steal their master's personal craft. Let's see if the infidel could dodge...

"I see you." Cyborg said.

As twin small segments near the Ouroboris' tail opened up and fired four micromissiles, the explosives blasting towards the Death Adder as the pilot's eyes went wide behind his mask. WHAT...?

And then his plane was exploding, as Cyborg went into a turn, grinning fiercely. There were times when he loved being what he was, computer timing and human attitude. He'd make sure he'd show that to everyone he could, starting with that last Death Adder he'd passed a moment before...

...except it hadn't gone back after him.

Beast Boy had, as a mythical roc bird, grabbed up a Diamondback from the deck of the _Scar_ and hurled it through the air, smashing another Copperhead with it, when he suddenly got a prickly feeling on the back of his neck, and turned around…

To see a missile launched from that Death Adder heading straight for him. Beast Boy shrieked and turned into a swift, taking off as fast as he could, but a swift could move at 200 mph at most. Most missiles broke Mach 1.

The outcome of such a race was obvious.

And so Beast Boy turned into a butterfly, letting the missile zoom under him, though the wind buffer near tore the fragile form Gar had assumed apart. He quickly turned into a seagull and tried to regain his bearings.

As the Death Adder jet that had fired the missile nearly pulped him in turn. And even as Beast Boy tumbled through the air, the missile re-acquired its target and began to turn around, heading back for Beast Boy. Unfortunately, Gar Logan did NOT have a lockon-destroying "dead field".

In a purely subconscious reaction to his sudden great fear, he turned into a chicken.

And then the missile exploded in mid-air, as Cyborg flew past Beast Boy, turning sharply to the left as he did so, while his best friend sputtered as he turned into an owl to steady himself.

"Ah don't worry Gar, as long as I'm here you're in good hands!" Cyborg gently needled. Beast Boy hooted in annoyance.

"Dude, I signed up to help, not for this to be a turkey shoot!" Beast Boy said, though he managed to keep from turning into THAT animal in his outrage.

"Hey man, the plane's too fast for you, that's just…"

Beast Boy ignored Cyborg: he saw the Death Adder that had nearly blasted him and then almost roadkilled (airkilled?) him was turning around to take another shot.

"We'll see about that." Beast Boy said, as he turned into a hawk and soared up.

"B, what are you doing? Don't do anything foolish! I take it back! Gar, don't!" Cyborg yelled, as he tried to make his own turn, but even planes as advanced as this weren't cars, they couldn't do donut turns right in the middle of acceleration (Cyborg would have to slow down to do his quick turns: if he tried it at high speed his stolen plane would likely fly apart), and even as Cyborg began to turn his plane around the Death Adder that had gone for Beast Boy was flying back towards the _Scar._

As Beast Boy went into a dive. His timing was going to have to be absolutely perfect.

The plane zoomed in.

The hawk swooped down.

And Beast Boy hit 21 on his gamble as the pilot suddenly found a gorilla crashing onto his cockpit.

Beast Boy immediately regretted his decision, as landing on a supersonic jet was pretty much like a bug flying into a windshield, the G-forces and windshear ripping at Beast Boy's body, sucking the air from his lungs…

But he was able to do one punch.

And that was all he needed, as he slammed his massive fist down onto the plane's nose, the impact enough to tilt the plane down just a touch, and for the immensely delicate machine, such a blow at such a speed was all it needed, as the changing wind pressure slammed the nose down like a meteor had hit it (which also had the effect of hurling Beast Boy off the plane) and turned the plane into a whirling out of control projectile.

It slammed into the side of the _Divine Scar_, exploding in a brilliant fireball that blasted through the levels it had impacted, sending Kobra troops running, screaming, and flying.

Beast Boy, now an eagle, flew back up. He felt dazed, but it was a good kind of dazed.

"Dude, you're crazy, I swear." Cyborg said as he flew past in his own ship.

"Yeah, crazy like a fox!" Beast Boy said, as he turned into one.

And plummeted anew, before turning back into an eagle and flying on.

* * *

"UGH! That was one of our own planes sir!" Minion A told the Kobra Organizer.

"ARGH! Intensify defensive firepower I don't want that happening again!" The Organizer said: whether he was aware of the film he was echoing, no one knew.

"The Lachegis is arriving on deck! Reinforcements are on the way sir!"

"Get them here NOW!"

* * *

Cyborg, being in one of Kobra's own planes, had access to their radio communications. Up until now, he hadn't been paying much attention to them as he'd been busy wrecking havoc: at the moment he was gliding along the side of the Divine Scar in a sideways motion as his gatling cannon and laser wing blasters blew the hell out of the Copperheads and Diamondbacks that were unfortunate enough to cross his sights. But the latest snippet did manage to catch his attention, as he drifted along the _Divine Scar._ Lachegis? What was...

And then the smoking wreckage of said shattered Copperheads and Diamondbacks was tossed aside as twin doors opened up on part of the deck near Cyborg, and he put his plane into a steady hover as he stopped and watched.

He didn't have to wait long.

"...oh crud." Cyborg said, as the massive machine rose up from the ship. And Cyborg had thought the Anaconda was big. And that had just been an armored personnel carrier with a few gun turrets. This was a massive TANK, so big it rested not on a pair of treads but in the middle of four SEPERATE pairs, each pair large enough to be a tank in and of itself. Lanceheads sat at the top of each tread, each mounted on a massive multi-barreled machine gun nest, as the main body of the tank sported twin rail drivers for its main gun, multiple missile launchers on its sides, and another turret on top of it that featured four laser blasters manned by a Naga, the whole machine painted in the usual black and greens. And the tank treads had been redesigned to look like scales, just to completely drive the point home.

This was the machine that King Snake would have unleashed against the Tower had some of the Titans decided to bunker down inside it: when everyone had run out as planned it had remained unused. Until now. It was called the Lachegis, the name of a genus of venomous pitvipers...and of one of the Three Fates of Greek mythology. She determined the length of the thread of life. And considering the sheer firepower the Lachegis showed, the war machine could certainly do that. And then do Atropis' (who was not related to Apophis) job as well: cut it.

"Dude, these guys can't do ANYTHING original! That is SO stolen from...!" Beast Boy said in Cyborg's communicator.

"Not now B. This...is gonna be a bigger problem then a lawsuit." Cyborg breathed.

"Problem? No way! I'm going in!"

"Gar wait...!"

* * *

"...ho boy...that's a big tank." Gauntlet said from where he stood, looking at the awesome sight of the Lachegis as it arrived. "Well...I really should go and attack it...but geez it's a big tank...but I'm the hero...but attacking it will ruin my brilliant plan to destroy the ship with the gouge..." Gauntlet said, as he stood there.

A Lancehead swung a tonfa at the back of Gauntlet's head. Gauntlet stepped aside and stuck out his foot, the Lancehead tripping over it with a yelp. Gauntlet stomped on his head for good measure.

"Well...cool moments but...big tank...and gouge...ARGH I HATE HARD DECISIONS!"

* * *

To Beast Boy, there was no difficulty in the decision: he swooped down as a hawk and then turned into an Ankylosaurus again, curling up into a ball and dropping down on the Lachegis.

"BANZAIIIIIIIIIIIII!!"

"B WAIT...!"

And bounced off it, the giant vehicle barely moving a foot and only denting a little bit as Beast Boy crashed across the wrecked surface of the _Divine Scar_, turning back into a tumbling human in the process.

"B! ARE YOU OKAY?" Cyborg yelled frantically.

"Owwwwwww...what the hell is that thing made of, promethium?" Beast Boy groaned.

"Possibly. Stay out of this one Gar, you don't have the proper equipment. This one's all me!" Cyborg yelled, as he flew his plane at a fast hover towards the tank and opened up with his gatling cannon.

His bullets fared as well as Beast Boy's dive bomb. On top of the Lachegis, the Naga roared laughter.

* * *

"...ehhhhhhhhh?" Gauntlet said, as Cyborg brought the Ouroboros to attack the gigantic tank/destroyer. The Ouroboros Gauntlet was not aware Cyborg had stolen. To Gauntlet, it looked like all the world that Kobra forces were now attacking _themselves_.

"But... sense...this makes none...why would...did one of my team get mind control...did a technopath just join the middle of...is Mortimer going to show then...but maybe...I mean...screw it, I'm going back to my gouge." Gauntlet said, and he did just that, fleeing the warzone that had erupted near him not out of cowardice but out of a desire to maintain his sanity.

* * *

Having taken a moment to catch her breath, Starfire was in the air again above the _Scar_, albeit a fair length from the current battle (it was a BIG ship). She was looking for Tim, who was undoubtedly somewhere in the confusion. But she couldn't find Robin anywhere, indeed, she couldn't see anyone at all. Where were her friends? Where was her love? She began to grow worried that Robin had gone off to do something foolish and incredibly brave—but mostly foolish—again.

And then another energy blast slammed into her from the side, and Starfire fell: she almost went over the edge of the sky ship, landing near the edge of the deck. She turned to see a Naga troop nearby, snarling snake-based nonsense at her, mouthing on about Apophis. Starfire didn't really care what he had to say, just how fast she could stomp him so she could resume her search for Robin.

But something about the look in this particular terrorist's eyes made Starfire pause, and she quickly realized she did so with good reason. The Naga made a motion with his hand, looking like he was pressing a button…and immediately he twitched and began to change, his muscles growing as though being inflated, his body contorting into some freakishly large shape.

Starfire shivered: Savior had not shared his assessments of what he'd seen (nor had he disabled all the Venom-empowered Nagas: just most of them), but Starfire recognized it from her own experiences, as she'd seen video files of a very similar transformation once long ago. She also knew of the man named Bane, who had broken the back of Robin's mentor long ago, and his steroid drug. His drug was called Venom; could it be that these snake-themed terrorists had somehow gotten their hands on it?

The answer, Starfire found, was a resounding yes, when she charged forward and tried to punch the Naga; he met her fist with his own, and because Starfire's strength was derived from the sun, not her own muscle mass, and because it was night time, he clearly had the advantage. Starfire staggered back, cradling her hand with the other as pain surged through it.

The Naga smashed at her again, but Starfire dive-rolled out of the way and came up behind him, kicking him in the back of the helmet and staggering him forward.  
Or at least that was the plan; she mostly just ended up damaging the helmet a little. The snake-themed warrior turned and clobbered her with a massive fist to her midsection that sent her sprawling across the tech.

Starfire got back up, fighting off a bunch of Blackadders that tried to jump her, and charged at the Naga again, this time zapping at him with eyebeams and dodging his strike instead of trying to overpower him.

But just as she went by him, he whirled around and smashed her with a backhand strike. Starfire gasped as the pain shot up her front, her ribs crying out in pain. She hit the metal deck hard, not making her previous injuries any better, and flipped over so that she was on her back, looking up at her assailant…whose massive, Venom-enhanced foot was coming down towards her head.

"Crush…for Kobra…" the Naga muttered.

Starfire caught the foot, but it bore down anyway, ready to extinguish the life from her body…

* * *

As Robin jerked backwards, shifting the angle of his weapons and slamming King Snake's sword down, as he slashed his leg up and out at King Snake's head.

King Snake caught his ankle.

Robin had no time to break free before King Snake yanked him up, swinging him over his head and slamming him into the roof, and then lifting him back up with the same arm and hurling Robin back the way he came, causing himself to lose his weapons in the process.

Robin bounced once and then flipped to his feet as he sent four Birdarangs flying rapidly through the air.

King Snake swatted them all in four quick movements from his _Grand Crest_.

"I grow tired of such a tactic." King Snake said.

And he swung his sword back, as the red mist was drawn off the wall to it, and then King Snake slashed across the ground, sending a deadly eruption of the dust at Robin.

There was no time to dodge, as Robin threw up his arms.

The red mist did not dissolve him: instead it acted like a storm of glass, Robin yelling as a hundred small cuts were slashed across his body…

As King Snake ran up and leapt, his foot slamming into Robin's chest and sending him tumbling backwards even further.

He stopped, mere inches, from the deadly barrier. He did not get up.

* * *

Raven was down to one arm: the other hung uselessly at her side, a cold numbness sweeping through it, but her lone arm was hurling blast after blast at Apophis, somehow holding off his attacks, even as his terrible voice raged and threatened inside her head, furious she was defying him, furious she was still alive.

And then, suddenly, the attacks stopped.

Raven knew what was coming and tried to mount a defense.

It proved useless, as power exploded anew from the anomaly, smashing through Raven's shield like it wasn't there and slamming into the girl, who felt like she'd been cut in half. The sheer impact and pain slammed through her, and she went limp, falling to the ground.

But she did not fall that far, as a red tendril of smoke seized her and drew her up, pulling her to the void and to the doom that lay beyond.

* * *

Cyborg didn't know just _what _the Lachegis was using for armor, but whatever it was, it was resisting depleted uranium rounds as stubbornly as it had resisted diving dinosaurs, as Cyborg circled around it as fast as he could, trying to keep ahead and away from it's machine gun and laser turrets as well as it's shifting banks of missiles. Sadly, the Lanceheads manning the four machine guns were nowhere as durable as the Lachegis, and Cyborg, for all his radar and vision-based targeting, couldn't avoid them. He felt a low sick feeling in his gut...and an even sicker one as Lanceheads on the _Divine Scar's_ deck ran up to the gigantic tank, climbed up it, and pulled the shattered bodies of their fellows out to take their places behind the guns. What kind of a brainwashing mindset prompted such disregard for life and limb, for such wicked reasons? Of course, it didn't help that there were guns to get behind, guns Cyborg had not been able to disable with his machine gun barrage, at that. Cyborg cursed low...

And then cursed loudly as the missile banks abruptly whirled 180 degrees and his systems screamed that there was now a lock-on on his aircraft, as Cyborg furiously shifted from hover to jet as his main engine snapped back to horizontal positioning and Cyborg blasted over the tank. His radar informed him several missiles _had_ been fired and were on his tail: this time Cyborg did release chaff, the missiles veering off even as he did...

As his systems screamed again, and Cyborg's computer brain somehow did a last-nanosecond barrel roll as the main rail cannons of the Lachegis fired, the lengths of magnetically-hurled metal nearly blowing Cyborg right out of the sky. They'd lured him, making him focus on one threat and nearly gakking him with another.

"This has abruptly stopped being fun." Cyborg said grimly, as he began turning the plane around. He was no quitter. He'd figure something...

And then he saw it, and for a moment Cyborg was stunned into mental silence.

* * *

The wretched smell of the Naga's boot filled Starfire's nostrils, her limbs trembling with sheer effort, but her efforts were failing, and the metal sole was filling her vision…

* * *

"Reinforcements on route, two minutes to arrival!"

"The Lachegis has engaged in combat! All readings green!"

"Get the Lanceheads up there! Get any remaining Copperheads in the air! Any remaining Diamondbacks as well! Strike at…!" The Organizer yelled.

And then alarms began sounding in the room, as the Organizer jerked his head towards the computers, having been focusing on yelling at his minions.

"INCOMING!" One yelled.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"

* * *

The same question was probably in the minds of the Lanceheads who had found themselves, a mere minute or so ago, faced with a helpless target, now an unstoppable force of destruction, as Scalpel grabbed one Kobra grunt by his ankle as he skipped and both spun him away and twisted his foot 180 degrees before he turned and zipped around a Lancehead, throwing his arm around his neck and yanking the Lancehead head over heels backwards so his knees slammed into another Lancehead's face. He then grabbed another stabbing Lancehead, kneed him in the gut, and as the minion doubled over brought the same knee down on his elbow. Two Lanceheads attacked in turn: Scalpel grabbed their respective right and left arms and yanked them in an X towards him, pulling their shoulders out of their sockets and slamming their heads together as he pushed them aside.

One came in with another kick, this one for Scalpel's ankle. Scalpel moved with speed beyond his bulk, looping his leg around the attacking one and kneeling down, twisting the leg with his own and wrenching the attacker's knee right out of its socket. The next one also tried attacking low: he got his ankle crushed between Scalpel's leg muscles as he repeated the move. The third one returned to stabbing: Scalpel grabbed his arm, broke it with an elbow shot, twisted it around, and then yanked the Lancehead down into his knee. Yet another came for him. Scalpel spat in his face, and as the Lancehead recoiled and screamed Scalpel walked past him, doing an almost casual chop on the back of his shoulder that snapped the bone clean anyway. The next one didn't even warrant a crippling: Scalpel just threw him upward into the ceiling with a sickening crunch.

Air exploded from the she-viper's lungs as she made her latest wide slash...only for it to be deflected by Morgue's baton. What the hell was going on! She kept going for eviscerating or deadly side-stabs, and the cow kept blocking and dodging all of them! She'd read the files on the pig! She could turn into bats, but that was it! How the hell was she still alive?

Morgue gave no answers, as she continued her defense. Their audience had shrunk considerably, as many Lanceheads had attempted to aid their fellows and were now being broken by Scalpel for their trouble, as she blocked and dodged, blocked and dodged, the she-viper's breath hissing through her clenched teeth as she slashed widely again. Sophie blocked it, took a step back...and then jerked forward, as she suddenly began throwing strikes against the female's left side, as Sophie's attacker's right arm was the one that held the knife. The she-viper's eyes went wide again as Sophie suddenly switched to offense and PRESSED it, slamming repeated blows into the Kobra minion's left arm, and AROUND her arm, hitting her on the collarbone and her stomach, the she-viper suddenly finding herself retreating, what was she going, the fat pig was right there GUT HER...!

The she-viper's knife stabbed out.

As Sophie grabbed her wrist, stopping the knife cold, and before the she-viper knew it she'd shifted the baton and rammed its length right against the Kobra minion's throat, as Morgue forced her attacker backwards. WHAT THE HELL HAD HAPPENED!

It was the same old story, Morgue thought as she sprinted, forcing her foe along. They looked at her and saw fat. And when they saw fat they saw weakness. Uselessness. A lump of waste, barely able to function at life, let along anything that required effort.

While for many, their excess mass was due to some kind of trouble, self-inflicted or other, for some they just gained and carried it. It was a glandular problem. The weight simply wouldn't come off. But if that prompted the assumption that that kept and prevented one from succeeding at intense, almost illegal training to refine one's cardiovascular setup, they were dead wrong.

Sophie was fat. She was NOT out of shape. And she'd made sure she'd been careful just how much effort she had exerted, letting her opponent blow through her energy with all her wild and crazy moves, certain she was the better woman and the guaranteed victor. Clearly miss she-viper had never heard of the rope-a-dope.

But she apparently HAD heard of dexterity training, as with a desperate twist the Kobra minion freed her knife hand and threw the blade, the knife spinning around and into the female's left hand, as she stopped and slashed right for Sophie's gut.

She missed. Morgue had dodged her. Not via her bat transformation. By a simple backwards motion. This wasn't POSSIBLE...!

The Lanceheads came. The Lanceheads broke. They lay in groaning, screaming masses around Scalpel. He'd smashed his way through the whole reinforcing battalion. But there were a few more, and none of them had gotten the hint.

Scalpel didn't even bother with grabs any more. One kick to the side of one's knee ripped it out. A punch to another's shoulder dislocated it like a dried-out piece of chicken. Another got the unique injury of a dislocated jaw as Scalpel backhanded him. Another charged in: Scalpel went back to the grabs after all, seizing his wrist with both hands, spinning and pulling his shoulder free as Scalpel positioned himself behind him and twisted his leg up, kicking him in the chest and sending him crashing into one of his few remaining fellows. Scalpel dove at the next one, knocking him down as he whirled up with the Lancehead's leg in his grip, snapping it as he whirled and grabbed the next one's downward tonfa swing, wrenching his arm down as he lifted his foot and slammed two quick ankle-flick kicks into the Lancehead's chest, ripping his shoulder free from its joint as well. Scalpel turned away from that, and ducked under an attempted running thrust kick, as Scalpel surged up, seized the man's leg, and then yanked backwards and forced the Lancehead into a full forward split, ripping virtually every muscle in his leg apart as he tossed him aside.

A Lancehead tried to stab him: he broke his wrist with a slap and then his sternum with a kick. Another ran in and swung a reverse roundhouse: Scalpel avoided with his own roundhouse and seized the man's leg with it, twisting and ripping his knee free. Scalpel then spun away from that Lancehead and broke the next one's ankle with a low kick, then whirled up and sent the next one flying and crashing into the wall with a upward thrust kick, then grabbed the next one's hand, crushed it in his grip, and then broke his elbow for good measure as he spun and hurled him away, then ducked under, seized the arm, and smashed the shoulder up and out of another Lancehead's socket as he simultaneously lifted and flipped him over onto the ground, and then grabbed the last one's arm, wrenched it one way around him, and then another way as the Lancehead was tossed to the ground, and then Scalpel twisted around, seized the Lancehead's arm between his knees, and broke it with one quick twisting clench.

And then...

...that was it.

There were no more Lanceheads.

Scalpel looked around at his handiwork, all of the supposed chosen of the world, down on the ground clutching their wounds and screaming like babies.

Scalpel paused, and then let loose his own scream. It quieted all the others, reducing it to mere groaning and whimpering.

"...I feel better." Scalpel said, as he cracked his neck. "...I'm going to be sore tomorrow..."

And Scalpel finally remember Sophie, as he whirled around, looking for her...and finding her. And her opponent, as she furiously, desperately slashed at Morgue, trying to cut her, trying to kill her, how was she still alive...?

The technique was fading. Morgue could see it, the Lancehead's training becoming anger and fear, as Morgue blocked the slashes, the angry, unceasing slashes...

As the she-viper overextended herself on a downward blow, as Morgue reared up and slammed her baton on the woman's shoulder and back. She screamed and slashed her knife back, missing and leaving herself open again, as Morgue jerked back to avoid the slash and then countered with her own, her baton slamming across the she-viper's mouth. Blood exploded from her lip.

And the she-viper snapped, screaming mindlessly and slashing like a maniac...as she overextended herself again and Morgue smashed her on the back of her neck. But the Kobra female kept coming, as she shrieked, bloody spittle flying as she slashed her knife at Morgue's neck...

As Morgue grabbed her hand, forced her arm aside, and slammed her combat baton over the she-viper's head so hard the battle-prepared metal almost broke in half.

There was a sudden silence, as the she-viper took a step back, as blood began running down her face and dull confusion filled her eyes. Her knife clattered to the ground, as she lurched and swayed.

As Morgue sighed, made a slight twist on her weapon's base, and pushed it against the she-viper's chest, folding the baton back in as the Kobra minion fell onto her back. She did not move again.

Morgue sighed again and pulled her mask down, her shoulders shuddering as she drew in some deep breaths.

"You claim I am a pig? Who is the one in the dirt? Hmmmmm?" Morgue asked.

"She can't hear you." Scalpel said, walking over and looking down. "...Hmmn. Even Savior can't say you haven't improved."

"I'd rather find a better way to prove it." Morgue said with a sigh.

And as she was pulling her mask back up, the impact slammed into them, throwing them into each other as they were tossed onto the ground with the Lanceheads.

* * *

_**WHAM!**_

The entire ship rocked violently, throwing the Naga, who only had one foot on the ground, off balance. Starfire stood and blasted the Naga back, then glanced off the nearby edge of the sky-ship to see if she could ascertain the source of the disturbance...

Starfire gasped—down below the top deck, there was a huge boulder, the size of the average house, jutting from a hole in the side of the _Scar_'s hull. The boulder pointed Starfire's eyes off into the distance…

Starfire did something she didn't think she'd have reason to do for a while: she smiled.

* * *

"Impact on right side! Damage to…" One of the minions was reporting before he got cut off.

"HERE COMES ANOTHER!"

* * *

Terra flew at the _Divine Scar_, in a semi crouch, her feet on two rocks, her eyes shining so brightly Starfire could see the glow pouring out of them from a hundred yards away. She had another rock, as big as before; it flew out and struck the ship, metal rending as the _Scar_ once again lurched and shook.

* * *

_**WHAM!**_

"SOMEONE SHOOT THE BITCH!" The Organizer bellowed.

"Cannons not responding…!"

* * *

Movement caught Starfire's eye, a reflection in a shiny portion of metal in front of her…

Starfire hit the deck and rolled over on her back as the Naga's massive fist slammed down, shattering the rail, almost exactly as the ship began to lurch back to normal after the two rocks had slammed into it.

And Starfire took advantage of it, bringing her knee up into the Naga's groin and rolling backwards with him off the edge of the ship where he began to plummet into the bay below…

Then Starfire's breath caught—Terra was still there, flying in directly at the _Scar_, her right hand raised in the air…

And an absolutely MASSIVE rock hovering behind her. It must have been the size of the original Watchtower, a gargantuan chunk of granite, dripping wet from years at the bottom of Jump City bay…

"Friend Terra, do not, you might injure—" Starfire said, and then realized that even if Terra could hear her she wouldn't have listened: her entire face was a picture of rage.

So Starfire got the hell out of the way.

"INTENSIFY DEFENSIVE FIREPOWER!" The Organizer shrieked.

"BASTARRRDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSS!" Terra roared, and thrust her arm forward.

"TOO LATE!"

_**KRAKASMASH!!**_

The rock slammed into the side of the _Divine Scar_ with enough force to _move_ the ship, the massive counter reaction sending all the remaining Kobra members on the deck sprawling onto the hard metal or over the edge into the abyss below. The Organizer's room exploded in a shower of sparks as he and all his minions were thrown violently to the ground. Engines and fuel tanks overloaded and exploded throughout the ship. Vehicles were smashed. Men were consumed with fire. The ship was engulfed in the chaos Kobra so wished to embrace. Even the Lachegis shifted several feet.

And Terra didn't stop there. To Starfire's horror, the Markovian began to drag the rock along the side of the hull, carving a huge gash into the sky ship like _Final Fantasy_ meets _Titanic._ Millions and millions of dollars in technology poured out of the side of the _Scar _into the bay, and by the time the rock had fallen apart and was no longer capable of such large-scale damage, Terra had shoved it across half the distance of the ship.

"………SHOW OFF!!" Gauntlet yelled from the deck, and then backhanded a Blackadder.

* * *

Sparks showered down on the fallen forms of Scalpel and Morgue as they looked at each other curiously.

"I am beginning to think remaining inside the ship may be getting quite dangerous soon." Morgue said as she got up.

"Perhaps we'd best let ourselves out then." Scalpel replied, and the two fled for the nearest door, leaving the fallen and broken bodies of the Lanceheads behind.

* * *

Cyborg had just stared at it all, dimly aware that Beast Boy had returned to his side. For the second time that day, he gave a teammate props.

"Whoo hoo hoo! That lady of yours Gar, she bites!" Cyborg commented, looking at the sheer scale of the damage Terra had inflicted on the main ship.

"Oh yeah, I know." Beast Boy said, sounding very satisfied. But his good mood didn't last. "Cy, we got company!"

"I see them." Cyborg said, looking at his radar. "Damn, I'm starting to get low on ammo too…"

* * *

Unfortunately, such massive expenditures of power did not come without a cost, and Terra's eyes ceased glowing. Then she began to fall, and Starfire swooped down, cupping the blonde in her arms and flying into the massive gash she'd made, hoping to find a place where Terra could recover…

"Are you alright?" she asked Terra as they retreated into a snake-themed women's locker room that was currently empty.

Terra nodded, smiling weakly at the older Titan. She held up a small rock she'd clutched tightly in her right hand. "Look, I found some Kryptonite! I'm gonna keep it; reminds me of Beast Boy."

"That is wonderful!" Starfire beamed, though not sure why.

But the battle quickly found her again, as Starfire turned, hearing more of the accursed Death Adders and their booms of the sonic, somewhere outside the big gash in the side of the _Scar_.

"Stay here," she said. "I have unfinished business. Are you able to deal damage to the enemy?"

Terra nodded. "If I rest up a bit, I should be able to use the remains of that rock to smash up anything that gets in my way."

Starfire nodded, then flew out of the _Scar's_, er, scar, then headed straight up to the top deck. With all the Titans now likely inside the ship (she guessed), it was seemingly deserted (though with its size and all the smoke and fire, Starfire couldn't be certain of that), and she found herself scanning the horizon for any signs of the remaining Death Adders.

She realized that there were three left, or rather three planes, and that one of them was trying—and failing—to gun down the other two. Perhaps Robert or Victor had tried to hijack one of their ships?

No matter, for Starfire was suddenly pelted in the stomach, her laceration from earlier stinging with the impact. Then the projectile uncoiled into a huge mechanical snake about twice the length of a human being. Star had no idea how it remained airborne as it began lashing at her, wrapping its body around her. Star struggled against the snake at first, then seared a portion of it with eyebeams. A powerful jerk pulled the thing in two where she had zapped it, and she began doing that to the other portions until she had the head of the machine in her hands.

"You have failed," she spat, before crushing it.

Star looked down, seeing several more of the snakes being launched at her, though most were missing by a wide margin; she blasted the ones that weren't with eyebeams, sending them careening into the bay, her temples and neck aching from the strain of constant exertion of that particular power. She needed a good recharge in the sun, and she wouldn't be able to get it for a long while. She'd have to make do.

As had Cyborg: the Lachegis had reminded him of his presence with another too-close railgun shot, and with that screwing him up his offensive effort against the Death Adders had failed, and he'd barely escaped being blown up with Beast Boy's help. And if he didn't think of something fast, he might not be so lucky next time…

Starfire glanced down at the tail of the mechanical snake she'd killed, wrapped around her leg, and an idea occurred to her. Starfire pulled the tail off, uncoiling its stiff body… Perhaps she couldn't blast a Death Adder out of the sky… but what if…?

A plane flew past her, and Starfire almost blew it away…

"Star, it's me! I've commandeered the plane!" Starfire's communicator said.

"Oh, Friend Victor! Are you all right?" Starfire said, as she realized the designs and markings on the plane she'd almost shot were slightly different.

"At the moment, but I'm not sure I can handle what's left!" Cyborg said. He was referring to the planes, the Lachegis, and any other remaining Kobra troops when he said that, but no sense confusing his sometimes-uncomprehending alien teammate.

"Then I shall!" Starfire said, and blasted off in the direction of the most recent sonic boom.

"I ever tell you I love that girl?" Cyborg said to Beast Boy.

"We all do man, we all do." The changeling replied. Cyborg chuckled and then grew grim.

"That damn tank's still up there. Let's make sure it can't surprise our girl, or anyone else." Cyborg said, as he shifted engines and roared off.

"HEY! WAIT FOR MEEEEEE...!' Beast Boy yelled as he frantically flew after him.

* * *

Starfire waited till she could hear something—it seemed that off in the distance there was a battle going on between Kobra minions and… someone. Perhaps the National Guard had been dispatched to liberate Jump City? Or SOMEONE had? Any aid would be appreciated…

No matter, Starfire knew that Kobra was the enemy, and that whoever was helping them was her friend.

Whoever they were, they were in ships, ships the Death Adders had unfortunately found and were shooting at. One of said ships exploded in the distance, and Star tracked as the Death Adder responsible turned and began its run back to the _Scar._

Starfire flew at it, just as she had the first mobile Death Adder she'd taken down. But this time, instead of trying to stop it with her bare hands—something she was much too exhausted for at this point—Starfire launched the tail of the mechanical snake at it with all the force she could muster.

The jet slammed into the makeshift missile at near the speed of sound, a loud noise confirming to Starfire that she'd at least made a hit.

The plane immediately fragmenting into a thousand pieces confirmed it. Starfire scanned the night sky, and saw a parachute.

The only other remaining Death Adder took off, and Starfire tried to blast it out of the sky with a pair of eyebeams, but to no avail. It must have activated some sort of shield that only repelled energy attacks. Either that, or Star's aim was just really, really horrible.

A memory from the earlier fight clicked, though, and Starfire blasted off, arcing towards the _Scar_, down towards the lower docking bay where there was absolutely no activity at this point. Some of the turrets had been replaced, but it seemed that the Titans were so distracting inside the ship that the turret-gunners didn't even notice her or were long gone.

Luckily, the Copperhead rotor she had left there to spite them was still there, jamming the closing mechanism of the turret. Star grabbed it, jerking it off the gun and flying back up towards the top deck, where she stood, scanning the starry night sky for any sign of the Death Adder coming back.

A flash in the distance: whatever good guys these bad guys were now blowing up, told her that it had just completed its attack run. Starfire clenched her fists—bending the rusty metal of the rotor into a handle the shape of her fingers—to compensate for the sweat on her hands.

A sonic boom in the distance: the Adder was heading for her again. Starfire took a step forward, whirling the rotor blade around her head and then stepping into a full body throw that sent the rotor blade flying off vertically towards its target. The pilot ejected milliseconds before the blades slammed into the nose of the Black Adder, cutting the first ten feet of the plane in two and sending the remains slamming once more into the side of the _Divine Scar._

Starfire, satisfied that there were no more planes on the snake, returned to the locker room to check on Terra.

* * *

Cyborg and Beast Boy hadn't been sitting around fiddling their thumbs during all this: Cyborg had made two strafing runs at the Lachegis, firing missiles into the deadly war machine. It hadn't done much, but at least he was able to put up a fight. It couldn't hold out forever. As for Beast Boy, he'd taken out two more Copperheads, flying in as a roc again and smashing the machines with wind gusts from his massive wings.

"Dude, I think if I can find another helicopter or two I can use my claw to grab it and throw it at your stupid tank. If you and I gang up on it it has to go boom, and once it does we're just about in the clear." Beast Boy said.

Cyborg was about to reply.

Then his radar went completely crazy, and Cyborg found his battle exuberance vanishing as a score of seemingly endless dots lit up on it.

Beast Boy didn't need radar: he'd seen it himself, as off in the distance, like a swarm of angry bees, a massive amount of flying reinforcements were on their way.

Beast Boy, not for the first time that day, wished he'd stayed in bed.

* * *

**_ON THE 4TH, IT ENDS._**


	6. The Blood Of Patriots And Tyrants

Conclusion: The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants

Down on the T-Tower, it was rapidly beginning to rank among the worst of Robin's days as well, as he slowly pushed himself up, waiting for the next blow.

It didn't come: at the moment King Snake was still standing some distance away, observing Robin, perhaps wondering if the constant blows to the head had rendered Robin so stupid that he didn't know to give up.

"You still cling to some feeble shred of resistance?" King Snake asked, as he spun his sword. "Right now, great Apophis is feasting on your friend. And your efforts no longer even bore me. This is hopeless, child. You are but a man, and I am so much more."

"You're a snake." Robin muttered, assuming a somewhat unsteady combat pose.

"Proudly." King Snake said, as he raised his sword up. "Feel my bite."

And King Snake charged, not at the extreme speed he'd used before, but at a speed Robin could see coming. So Robin could see his death.

As Robin reached down for his belt.

"Good to know."

And he hurled a Birdarang at King Snake. King Snake sliced it from the air. Robin threw another one, and then again, King Snake laughing as he easily deflected the projectiles.

And Robin hurled his final weapon.

King Snake slashed it before he realized it wasn't a Birdarang.

"WHAT?"

The freeze disc exploded, and King Snake found himself coated in ice, covered in the thick frost before he could even recoil.

His imprisonment only lasted a moment, as the ice exploded off of him, and he screamed in rage…as Robin punched him in the face, knocking his head back.

King Snake snarled and slashed at Robin, but his movements were slower, duller, weaker. He truly had become like a snake: the tongue, the movements, the venom…and the cold-blooded nature, the freeze disc sucking the heat from his body and leaving it numb and weakened.

But Robin didn't know how long it would last (King Snake still had human traits, and the concept of "cold-blooded" had become a rather outdated term), so he wasn't going to waste a second, as he drew deep down within himself, uniting all the teachings he'd been given, from Batman to the True Master, and he let it flow through him.

And brought his righteous rage to bear as King Snake slashed at him again. Robin dodged aside and punched him in the kidney, then ducked under the next slash and uppercutted him across the chin. King Snake countered with a backhand, but his strength was sapped, and instead of flying Robin went with the blow, spinning and slamming his foot into King Snake's gut. The villain staggered back, snarled, and spat his deadly poison at Robin, but Robin saw it coming and dove under it, the poison hitting the ground behind him as he punched both his fists into King Snake's gut. The villain recoiled again, and Robin snatched up his nearby staff and lanced it at King Snake. King Snake slashed down, deflecting the staff into the ground…as Robin pole-vaulted from the movement and slammed his foot into King Snake's face.

King Snake staggered back again…and then blood began to flow from his nose, a fact that clearly shocked him.

"I guess you're more human then you realized." Robin said. King Snake roared and charged again. Robin blocked with his staff, but he felt the impact: King Snake was heating up again, and he doubted he'd fall for the freeze disc trick twice. He didn't have much time…!

* * *

Raven, in contrast to what King Snake had said, was not being eaten by Apophis: instead, her limp, encircled form was floating right in front of the void, as she finally shook off the cobwebs.

_**LOOK AT YOUR DEMISE CHILD…**_

The pain shot through Raven again, even as her eyes were forced open. Beyond the void, Apophis, Apep, seemed a bit clearer now, but his form was far from constant. At first he was a snake, then he appeared to be a dragon, and then a crocodile, and then a snake again, and then something Raven couldn't comprehend. But even as she watched all this form-shifting, she realized that none of them were true, that Apophis existed in the end as little more then a kind of all-destroying force…

Which would cross over to her world.

Would tear down everything she'd helped build. Everything she'd been given.

It would eat her salvation.

LIKE DAMNATION IT WOULD.

"ZINTHOS!" Raven screamed, as she blew the restraints off of her, calling as much black power as she could, new strength in her limbs, as she was consumed with dark energy and lashed out with it, slamming it into Apophis with all her might.

But there was no cries of pain or anger. Just mocking laughter.

_**YOU WOULD SEEK TO REPULSE ME WITH OFFENSES OF MY VERY ESSENCE? YOU DIE FOOLISH CHILD. AND SHRIEKING MY NAME!**_

And the red mist surged forth, breaking through Raven's attack, turning her offensive into a desperate defensive within seconds, as Raven gritted her teeth and set her heels, the rumbling echoes of a dark god's laughter cascaded through her head.

* * *

"What do we do Cy?" Beast Boy asked, looking at the approaching armada.

"I…" Cyborg said, blanking. They were coming, scores more Copperheads and larger helicopters Cyborg hadn't seen before, troop carrying helicopters that were already launching jet-suited Kobra minions. There was even a cluster of sleek one man saucer/disc things that hadn't been used in the earlier attack, instead used to patrol Jump City and keep it quiet until the troops had been ordered home. And they were all heading for Cyborg and Beast Boy, and even if Starfire and Terra joined them it would be overwhelming odds…

* * *

"Coordinator 1, we are in range, targets in sight, your orders." The head Copperhead pilot said into the radio. "Your orders sir."

"No orders."

The voice that spoke was not of the Kobra Organizer.

He, after all his stress, was finally taking a nap, as were his minions, as Savior sat at the main computer, Shimmer lines extending from him to utilize all the consoles. His face was grim.

"Just two lessons." Savior said to the very confused Copperhead pilot. "One, if you're going to put nanomachines to stop a mental probe in people's heads, you should make sure to put it in ALL the member's heads instead of just the offensive soldiers. Bad time to be frugal." Savior said, as his Shimmer strands rapidly typed at the multiple computer stations. "And TWO…"

And the right main cannon of the _Divine Scar_ began to turn, as it activated and began to charge up…facing the incoming reinforcements.

"No one shoots my dark lady. Not without _**CONSEQUENCE.**_"

"OH NO!!" The pilot screamed as he saw the cannon light up, aimed at him and all his fellows.

"Oh yes." Savior said, and fired.

His only mercy was that he'd weakened the beam, and he'd only done that because widening it caused that side effect, as the giant blast shot out and tore through the reinforcements, blasting them to pieces and falling men as Savior raked its length across the group.

"SCATTER! HURRY! HURRY!" Came panicked voices.

"No." Savior replied, as the cannon finished charging again, as he aimed it at one end of the group again and fired, blowing more reinforcements out of the air en masse.

* * *

"Wow, it's true, you really can't trust a snake!" Beast Boy said, as he watched the _Divine Scar_'s own primary weapon blast the reinforcing legions to so much scrap metal.

"Ha ha, I love this team!" Cyborg laughed.

As the missiles came flying at him, and Cyborg yelled and put the Ouroboros into jet mode again, doing another hard turn as he fired off more chaff. That goddamn Lachegis! Forget their newly-acquired supercannon, Cyborg was going to take that damn thing out personally!

"Steer clear B! This one is ALL MINE!" Cyborg yelled as he shook off the missiles and blasted towards the gigantic tank, as Cyborg armed four of his own missiles and fired them off.

The missiles blasted against the massive vehicle, but all they did was scour ugly marks on the machine, as Cyborg cursed, doing a tight spin to avoid the Naga firing lasers at him and taking off before the machine could aim its rail gun at him.

* * *

"I know you hate it when I act like a knight in shining armor Raven…but damn it, I'm weak." Savior said, and unleashed a third shot, reducing the fragmented reinforcements to a true shadow of their former self. But some had escaped, and were closing in, preparing to blow up Noel's commandeered weapon…

Until Starfire and Terra swooped up, and the remains found their end in Starbolts and rock.

"Heh heh heh. I guess your ships can't repel firepower of that magnitude." Savior chuckled darkly. "Hmmmmmm, what else can we swipe from Star Wars…oh I know!" Savior said, as his Shimmer began typing rapidly at the computers anew.

As the battered right cannon and the left one suddenly both began turning…right around, as Savior began twisting them both 180 degrees (well only 90 for the right one), aiming them at the giant cobra crest that formed the back of the _Divine Scar_.

* * *

"Attention! The _Divine Scar's_ primary cannons have been compromised! They're being turned on the ship!" A desperate voice crackled in the guts of the Lachegis. The main Lancehead operator growled: first the master's plane, then his mightiest firing weapon. It seemed like everyone in the Kobra organization was completely incompetent.

Save him. He'd deal with the problem. As powerful as the master's plane was, it paled in comparison to the might of the Lachegis. He'd show the master that. And certain in his decision, the Lancehead turned the main rail gun cannons away from the Ouroboros and aimed them at the right cannon on the _Scar._

And fired.

* * *

The computers exploded in a new blast of sparks, sending Savior tumbling out of the chair he was sitting in. He shook his head and got up: what the hell had that been?

Someone had just taken out one of his cannons? Who? The reinforcements were destroyed. Was it Apophis? Or...

It didn't matter. He had to either find the shooter, or get another shot off before he lost his entire firing capacity, as he sat back down and fired out several more Shimmer strands, working against time before the computers in front of him, some already on fire, konked out completely.

* * *

The Lancehead smiled fiercely as he blew the right cannon apart. Now for the left...

As his radar rapidly beeped, informing him of the return of the Ouroboros. The stupid infidel who'd stolen it was trying another attack run. When was he going to learn...

Cyborg had learned. Missiles weren't working.

So Cyborg went bigger, and dropped the bomb on top of the Lachegis. Specifically, the same GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb that a Death Adder had tried to drop on him.

The Lachegis wasn't as good as moving as he'd been.

"GRAGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!" The Lancehead snarled as the blast slammed through the giant tank, annihilating the laser turret and the Naga manning it and taking out the remaining Lancehead gunners on the four tread segments as well. But the blast still didn't penetrate anything vital, and the Lancehead immediately activated the missile launchers to counter-attack. Or tried anyway: they refused to respond. Typical.

But it didn't matter: the main cannon still functioned. He'd use it on the _Divine Scar_'s captured weapon, and then use it to blow the Ouroboros out of the sky. Nothing could stop him...

* * *

Cyborg was beginning to think the same thing, as he ran through his remaining weapons. His gatling gun was empty. His missiles were depleted: the few he had left were air to air and lacked the power needed. And the laser weapons on the wings were virtually out of power: maybe they'd heat up the Lachegis but even they lacked the impact that...

Cyborg blinked, and then called up a few schematics. He checked them against some others.

...he had an idea.

...and then his communicator crackled.

"Cy, I know you said don't go in...but I'm not just going to sit here on my rear end."

"Gar? What are you doing?" Cyborg replied, as he spun around to take his final run, even as he made his modifications...

And saw his best friend.

Standing on the Lachegis.

* * *

The Lancehead was aware of Beast Boy's presence, but he barely cared. There was no animal in the world that could penetrate the Lachegis' armor, and despite all the firepower Cyborg had rained on the machine, the Lancehead's systems informed him that the inside of the tank was uncompromised: there was no crack the changeling could slip through even if he was an ant, and even if there WAS, the sheer heat of the Lachegis could fry his fragile insect body long before he got in. And if he tried to damage the main guns, the Lancehead would give him a shocking surprise, in the form of a 250,000 amp electric defense system.

The stupid heretic could do nothing.

It was that lack of creative thinking that always gave Beast Boy the edge, as he stood on the tread segment, watching a moment as the main cannons swirled to take out the other front gun of the _Divine Scar,_ as he brought all his mental focus to bear. It wasn't easy, tweaking his talent. He risked injury to body and mind when he did it too long, and in this case, too long would be five seconds.

That would be two more seconds then he'd need.

"You wanna rip off _Command & Conquer_?" Beast Boy breathed. "Fine. I see your _C&C_..."

And he transformed, his body wrenching itself into a unique, unnatural shape, his mass exploding out until he covered the whole tread segment, as Beast Boy pushed his animal abilities to the edge...and turned into an Ultralisk.

"And raise you _STARCRAFT!"_

As the gigantic alien insect slashed out with it's giant monomolecular-edged mandible and cut the rail gun right in half.

"WHAT!?" The Lancehead screamed, as his main weapon was suddenly destroyed within two seconds, as Beast Boy immediately popped back into his normal form, stumbling away drunkenly, his body overwhelmed by the strain he'd forced on it. But despite it all, he was smiling.

"Ha ha ha ha...Zerg rush..." Beast Boy slurred, as he stumbled over the edge of the tread segment...as Starfire swooped by, catching him and carrying him away from any possible retaliation, as the Lancehead screamed inside his castrated war machine.

And as for why Starfire didn't make any offensive effort when she'd grabbed her teammate...that reason became apparent a few seconds later.

As Cyborg brought his plane down into a hover right in front of the huge tank, floating no more then ten feet from him.

"Say hello to my leetle friend." Cyborg said, and slammed his sonic cannon into a newly formed plug beneath his legs...as he established a pathway for his blast, and then emptied his entire cannon power source into it. Along with 90 percent of his main battery.

As the Ouroboros' laser cannons opened up, shone white, and then fired two blasts of unbelievably powerful concussive energy out of them, the twin blasts slamming into the Lachegis. The blasts did not blow up, or go through the tank. Instead, they impacted ON the tank, in a constant unrelenting stream.

The process fried the Ouroboros' laser blasters in seven seconds.

But by that time the hundred plus ton tank was already going backwards, even it's sheer mass unable to resist the overwhelming power of the blast, as the Lancehead inside screamed in rage.

And then he ran out of deck

With the dull rending sound of shifting metal, the Lachegis flew off the edge of the _Divine Scar_, the Lancehead's scream barely audible as the tank plummeted down into the waters.

"...ugh. Booyah." Cyborg whispered, as he pulled his arm free. He hadn't been sure that would work.

* * *

And even as the Lachegis plummeted to its demise, Savior finished aiming his remaining cannon. He didn't know how it had avoided being destroyed, but he wasn't going to ask.

Just pull the trigger.

"Time to bite your own tail."

And Savior unleashed the cannon at maximum power.

The entire upper half of the crest-station exploded, and the whole ship rocked and roiled as fiercely as when Terra had slammed it with her giga-rock. Savior was thrown out of his chair again and bounced on the ground a bit as the computer stations in front of him sparked again, and then _all_ of them finally exploded into fire, explosions that echoed across the ship as more systems overloaded from the damage.

"Oops, I seemed to have finally fried this whole setup! Silly me." Savior said.

He was kind enough to slap around the minions and Organizer until they all started waking up before he headed off. They were on their own from there; Savior figured it was time to go while the going was good.

* * *

A sentiment shared by Cyborg, as his computers informed him that his abrupt use of the plane as a focusing rod for his personal sidearm had done more damage then just destroying part of the weapons' system. Cyborg couldn't quite tell the details, but it seemed like his plane wasn't going to last much longer.

Fine.

"B? Are you alright? B?" Cyborg said.

"...yeah. I was just stunned for a bit." Beast Boy said, as he hung from Starfire's arm, the three of them having watched the Lachegis fall to its demise. "Damn, we make a good team, don't we?"

"When you're not playing the fool."

"Takes one to know one."

"...yeah." Cyborg said. "What's your status?"

"I still have some juice left. You?"

Cyborg's plane abruptly hovered down near the three Titans.

"Not really. But I'm gonna use what I do have. Come with me! One last time!" Cyborg said, as he took off down the length of the battered and smoking skyship.

"I'm good Star. You stay here. I suspect there's more damage to be done." Beast Boy said, as he flew after Cyborg.

* * *

But for all the success the Titans were having on the _Divine Scar_, in the end all that mattered was what was going down at the Tower.

Robin and King Snake's weapons were a blur as sword and staff clashed against each other, sparks shooting from the blows again, as Robin blocked a slash with the middle of his staff and promptly seized his weapon with both arms and spun it, trying to disarm King Snake, but King Snake went with the motion and stabbed forward, clipping Robin's ear as he hissed and leapt backwards, spinning his staff around and swinging it in a wide arc. King Snake ducked and lunged forward, but Robin went with the motion of his staff in turn and jumped to the side, avoiding King Snake's stab as he rolled over the villain's back. King Snake whirled as Robin lunged, stabbing the staff at King Snake: the villain dodged to the side and slammed his free arm down, locking the staff in place…as Robin immediately let go and punched King Snake in the face. King Snake hissed and slashed at Robin with his other arm and the sword in it, but Robin did a Matrix-style backwards dodge and the blade slammed into the staff King Snake had neglected to drop, ricocheting off and leaving King Snake open for Robin to bury his foot in his stomach and then spin like a disco dancer and kick King Snake across the head as he spasmed down.

The villain, for the first time, fell to the ground.

Robin snatched his staff back up, and as King Snake looked at him, he motioned to continue.

King Snake roared and lunged, faster then any snake that had ever tried to bite, but he wasn't as fast as he had been before, still feeling the effects of Robin's freeze disc, and Robin dodged aside, whirling as he tried to slam King Snake across the back with his staff, but King Snake whirled in turn, blocking with his sword, as Robin yanked the staff back and spun it, throwing multi-angled blows at the master of Kobra as he raised his sword to meet each one…

As Robin compressed his staff in mid-move, and King Snake swung through empty air, as Robin immediately extended the staff again to slam the sword down with the point of it, as Robin spun with the motion and leapt, spinning his leg and slamming his foot across King Snake's face, sending the villain stumbling and almost falling again.

Robin spun his staff back up and charged…

"ENOUGH!" King Snake bellowed, as he slashed…at the air, as Robin was still several feet from him…

As the red barrier smoke surged off the wall again, slamming into Robin from the side and tearing through him, and even as he began to scream King Snake slashed his sword the other way and red mist surged out from the other side, striking Robin like a mach truck, and even as his body spasmed from THAT blow King Snake slashed his sword up and down, and twin lances emerged from both sides of the barrier above King Snake and slammed down onto Robin like a bolt of lightning, smashing him into the ground like he'd fallen from heaven.

"This has gone on long enough." King Snake said, as he walked up to Robin, seizing the teenager by his shredded cape and pulling him up. "This was all decided long ago. I win, you die. All of you. First your city, then this country, then the world and beyond…"

* * *

"You got the plan?" Cyborg said. "You're sure there's no more helicopters or boats or jetpacks or zeppelins or ANYTHING?"

"You're all clear Cyborg: let's do this and get out of here!" Beast Boy said from Cyborg's communicator as Cyborg turned the jet around.

"Roger." Cyborg said, and briefly patted the controls as he set the source and then disengaged his systems from them. "Sorry to have to do this to you man, but hey…" Cyborg said, as his arms opened, and he extracted two roundish electric devices.

Which he dropped by his feet, even as his legs opened up and dropped four more, the orbs rolling a bit and then humming as they all magnetically clamped onto the walls, beeping rapidly.

"Better to go out with a bang rather then a whimper." Cyborg said, as he made the last adjustments, as the Ouroboros flew towards the massive engines at the back of the _Divine Scar._

And Cyborg blew the canopy, jumping from the plane instead of ejecting, and as the jet flew away from him, going into a spin, Cyborg found himself plummeting to the dark water below.

"Uh…Gar…where THE HELL DID YOU GOOOOOOOOOO…!" Cyborg wailed, as he fell…as Beast Boy swooped under him and caught him as a dragon.

As the jet slammed home.

And explosions far greater then the jet would have produced alone blasted through the engines, completely destroying one and tearing through four others, as inside the _Divine Scar_ more explosions ripped through the innards of the engine, including through several of the all important anti-gravity generators that let such a massive machine not only fly but stay hovering in the air.

Without them, gravity re-asserted itself, and the _Divine Scar_ began to tilt to one side, even as it began to slowly head down towards the sea, as Beast Boy and Cyborg flew away, briefly celebrating their triumph before a stray Copperhead started shooting at them.

"DAMN IT MAN I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE WERE CLEAR!" Cyborg yelled, as he summoned the last bits of energy in his cannon to return fire.

"WE WERE! NEVER SAID I WAS PERFECT!"

As the Copperhead's rear rotor was caught by Cyborg's first shot and broke off, and the helicopter fell.

"Good thing I am." Cyborg said, as he blew on the end of his arm.

"You wanna walk home Cy?"

"I bet I could do that too..."

* * *

The explosion threw Savior into a wall, and he shook his head and moved on, trying to keep his balance…

And not get ambushed, as a dark form loomed in the doorway.

Savior popped out a Shimmer blade.

As Scalpel stalked through the door, followed by Sophie.

"Ah, Nigel, Soph, good, you're alive." Savior said, as the alien tipped the space where his hat usually was at him.

And then was thrown into him as another explosion rocked the giant sky-ship, the two tumbling to the ground. Morgue, despite herself, giggled.

"That's happening a lot it seems." She said.

"Yes yes, come on guys, let's blow before this place does!" Savior said, gesturing for them to follow him, and the three ran on.

* * *

Gauntlet wasn't aware of hijacked weapons and daring modifications: all he knew was that it seemed like all the opposition on the deck had been cleared off, leaving him a clear path...

As Starfire flew down and scooped Gauntlet up, carrying him away.

"WHAT THE...!" Gauntlet yelped.

"We must get away friend Rob!"

"STAR! I WAS WINNING!" Gauntlet yelled, as she carried him away. "My master plan! Ruined!"

"The ship is due to lose its altitude at any moment, how did that involve your master plan?" Starfire asked as she flew on.

"...I chose to believe that my gouge contributed to that." Gauntlet finally said, and settled in to enjoy the ride.

* * *

"Okay, okay Savior, I'm flying by the wrecked part, a little TOO close considering the stray explosions and the still possibly active guns, you needed a pickup, I'm here, now where are you?" Terra said into her communicator.

"Where are we?" Savior's voice replied. "Um…look up."

Terra did do, and squawked as she saw the three Titans plummeting towards her, having literally all jumped out of part of the massive hole she'd made.

The landing went better then one would expect: Savior caught her rock with a Shimmer strand and made it take all the slack as he fell past the rock, stopped, and pulled himself on, carrying Scalpel. Sophie just turned into bats on the way down and reformed on the rock (something she'd offered to do with all of them, but Savior had declined on the grounds of 'It's the most creepy goddamn sensation I've ever felt in my life')

"And you're always chastising me for doing stupid things." Terra said, hands on her hips as she looked at Savior.

"SAVE IT MARKOV!" Savior yelled, as the four rock-riders were buzzed by one of the saucer things Savior had missed shooting, as Terra and Savior both counter-attacked it before it took advantage of their sitting duck status.

* * *

But all this meant utterly nothing to Raven, as she tried to keep the last of her fragile defenses up, but her power couldn't stand up…

And Apophis knew it, as he roared and finally broke through, sending Raven tumbling back before he seized her, his grip making her feel like her skin and innards were on fire, a pain so great she couldn't even find the strength to cry out.

_**ENOUGH OF THIS WASTE OF TIME. YOUR WORLD ENDS TONIGHT! I SHALL FINALLY PROVE TRIUMPHANT OVER THE FORCES THAT WOULD OPPOSE ME, EVEN BEDLAMITE WASTES OF DEMONSPAWN LIKE YOURSELF!**_

As down on the ground, King Snake brought his sword up to cut Robin's living heart from his chest...

Raven's ears and nose were bleeding, and the whites of her eyes had gone red minutes before. Her body was wracked with agony, made even worse by her empathetic nature, as Apophis brought the worst it could to bear on her, drowning her in his hate and his cruelty, bringing to bear extremes of bloodlust and savagery no human could match, crushing her under the weight of a being that would dare to devour the sun itself…

And it sparked within her.

A spark that ignited into an inferno, as light, brighter then the sun itself, suddenly shone and then exploded from her eyes and mouth, a light that consumed her even as it erupted.

_**WHAT?!**_

And the red mist of destruction was blown away, as the shining brilliance exploded from Raven and formed into a massive white bird, a phoenix casting away the darkness.

The Titans, heading back to the Tower, recoiled from the flash, while King Snake, moments from killing Robin, was thrown forward by the blast of the power, nearly landing on his own sword, as Robin, finding new strength in his limbs where none had been before, pulled himself free and leapt backwards, out of the villain's grip.

As Raven stood revealed, transformed, ascended, her cloak now purest white and her hair long and flowing in the power that surged around her, golden runes shining on every length of her brilliant cloak.

"I know something of destruction." She said. "I was born to bring it about. I was raised being told that it was my sole destiny and nothing more. I was given nothing except that promise, for the so-called greater good. But when I came here, I found this was not true. I was not defined by the wills and desires of others. I had a say. These people you would destroy, perhaps they have produced the men who would bring you here, but they also produced the people who stood by me, who offered me something else, who battled with all they had and more when my destiny awoke, not only to stop it, but to save me from it. They gave me everything I treasure. They give me my greatest power. All your pain and suffering you brought to bear on me Apophis, I took willingly to protect them. You think you were destroying me? The worst you have to offer only BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN ME."

And Raven threw her arm up, her cloak shining around her.

"AND WHILE I WALK ON THIS ASCENDED PLAIN FOR THE BRIEF TIME I CAN, I CALL UPON ITS POWER TO PROTECT THEM FROM YOU!"

_**NEVERRRRRRRRRR!!**_

The voice thundered louder then ever in Raven's head, but it had no more power over her. SHE had the power, she had the light, the light her friends the Titans gave her, the light that shone brightest when the darkness bore down, as she struck out with it, smashing through Apophis' power like it wasn't there and forcing it back through the crack King Snake had opened.

"NO! LORD APOPHIS!" King Snake screamed from below, having forgotten Robin as things suddenly went so bad so fast. "YOU WILL NOT RUIN EVERYTHING!" King Snake roared as he raised the _Grand Crest_ and hurled it at Raven.

Even as Robin's staff was thrown like a javelin and slammed into the back of King Snake's head, sending him stumbling forward and falling down, screwing up his own throw at the last second.

The blade missed Raven by a foot. She didn't even notice, as she forced back the snake god, bringing down on him the strength that had turned back her father, turned back shadow gods and sorceress queens and insane fire spirits, and would turn back this.

Robin could only watch in wonderment.

_**THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! I CANNOT BE DEFIED BY THE LIFE-RUNOFF OF A PATHETIC DEMON!**_

"YOU CAN AND YOU WILL!" Raven thundered in return, as she fully charged up, fully turned her might on Apophis, forcing him back more even as she seized the edges of the chasm between realities and began to close it. "THIS IS MY WORLD! THIS IS MY PATH TO WALK! YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE! YOU WILL NEVER WALK HERE! YOU WILL VANISH INTO OBLIVION! _**I CAST YOU OUT!"**_

_**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!**_

And then with one final blaze of glory, the gate slammed shut, sealing itself closed, and Apophis was gone.

And with it went the light, only available to Raven when the worst came to bear, and she fell from the heavens.

And stopped a few feet from the ground, as she floated the last few feet, landing gently, and then putting a hand on the alter as she slumped, breathing heavily.

"…damn it guys. I just went to the darn barber." Raven said to herself, but she was smiling as she did.

* * *

"Wow. I think we missed the party." Terra said from her rock as she headed to Titan Tower, the tower of red smoke gone.

"Yeah, tangling with ancient chaos entities. I think that's a party I'd be glad to miss." Morgue said.

"Raven appears to have succeeded in what she was called on to do." Scalpel said to Savior, who glanced at the alien.

"Was there ever any doubt?"

"There's always doubt."

"Not for me." Savior said. "Never doubted it for a second."

"Um, friends?" Starfire's voice came from all their communicators. Savior answered his first.

"Yeah Star? You need some help mopping up some Kobra stragglers?"

"Um, no, you see, Friend Gar's eyes were hurt by the very big flash, so he landed near the bottom of the Tower to briefly rest, and Friend Cyborg…he had found something, and well, he called us down, and…it might be best if you came here as well."

Savior looked at his fellows, but they looked as clueless as him as to what this was about.

"Well, you heard the lady, base of the tower, go go!" Savior said, and Terra sighed and headed in that direction.

* * *

"No…" King Snake said, as he lifted himself to his knees, staring in horror where moments ago Apophis had laid, just outside the world's reality and ultimate power. The power that was gone from him, taken as Apophis was banished. "How…how…what is this…"

"Simple, Dorrance." Robin said, as King Snake whirled about. "It's called losing. Better luck next time the stars and planets all line up again. When did you say that would be, something like a quarter of a million years?"

"NO! YOU BASTARD CHILD! YOU RUINED _**EVERYTHING!**_" King Snake roared, as he leapt up and charged at Robin, who set himself down in a combat position. Without Apophis, King Snake's demonic strength, speed, and abilities were gone, but his eyesight seemed to have stayed.

And his martial arts skills hadn't faded in the least, as he thrust his fingers at Robin's throat, trying to crush it.

Robin deflected the blow and punched King Snake in the stomach, then ducked under King Snake's following punch and leapt backwards. King Snake charged after him, slashing out his leg at Robin: Robin blocked it and kicked King Snake in the gut, knocking him backwards. Clearly surprised, King Snake charged in again, furiously throwing his fists.

Robin dodged them all, even as Raven, feeling a little better, untied the long-unconscious Susan Paniwi and took her body off the alter. King Snake never noticed, beyond caring for such things, as he leapt and spun, slashing a leg at Robin. Robin dodged aside, and as King Snake landed and turned Robin leapt and spun down, tucking his upper body and doing a no-handed cartwheel as he slashed out his foot, the heel of his left leg catching King Snake right in the face with a dull crunch, knocking him backwards as Robin landed on his back from the impact and flipped to his feet.

He should not have been able to land a blow like that: King Snake had earlier proven to be able to protect himself from far more practical attacks. But he had…

Which confirmed Robin's suspicions: Apophis' blessing had become a curse. King Snake's whole style had been based around his blindness, and now that he could see, it was screwing the whole thing up.

And Robin had spent much time in that cell thinking over his fight with Snake, analyzing everything he had done, and why. King Snake, on the other hand, had not.

Robin cracked his knuckles, and gestured for King Snake to bring it.

King Snake charged in, still bellowing (they always bellowed) and Robin mimed throwing a Birdarang. King Snake dodged…right into Robin's snap kick, sending blood spraying from the villain's mouth as his head snapped back. He spun and lashed a heel kick at Robin's head, but Robin slipped around the move and punched King Snake in the face again. King Snake fired back with his own punch, which Robin blocked as he kneed King Snake in the side, and as he reacted to that he spun and backhanded King Snake across the face.

"You…will…die child!" King Snake hissed as he pulled a knife from his tights and charged in again.

He stabbed at Robin's head: Robin dodged aside and gave King Snake another kidney shot. King Snake slashed: Robin ducked under it as he took one quick step to the side and landed a cross to King Snake's head. King Snake's third slash was better, Robin not quite able to dodge it, as it sliced a bloody line across his face, but as King Snake lunged after Robin to follow up Robin slipped in beyond his guard and stomped out with his foot, catching King Snake in the ankle and causing his leg to buckle as the villain went down on one knee…as he stabbed the knife at Robin's ear.

Robin grabbed the wrist, squeezing hard on the nerves present sent to send a spasm of pain through the fingers, which went slack, dropping the knife, even as Robin punched King Snake as hard as he could across the face with his other hand, and then drove his fist into his gut once more, knocking the wind from him, as he twisted King Snake's arm down and slashed out with his leg, kicking King Snake across the face and then back again. King Snake reeled. Robin's eyes blazed.

"You're not wanted."

As Robin snapped out his hands, seized King Snake's head, and flipped up and over him, adjusting his hands as he leapt over the villain, hooking King Snake under his chin as Robin's feet touched the ground...as Robin yanked with every ounce of strength he had left, pulling King Snake over his body and through the air with one final, decisive throw.

The villain flew like he'd been hit by a car, slamming into the alter and shattering it as his body crashed down to the ground. He did not move again.

Robin did a few martial arts stances, and then put his right hand up as he slammed his left fist into it and bowed.

"Your kung fu is not strong." Robin said, and broke out of the bow.

"Yes, but that wasn't exactly his style, Robin." Raven said as she walked over, having given her cloak to keep Susan warm. "But good work anyway. The best."

"You too Raven. Me, I was just the meat shield. You drove off the darkness. You saved the world."

"Until the next lunatic who thinks his problems and failings can be solved by blaming and murdering comes along." Raven said.

"RARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" King Snake roared, rearing up from the shattered alter, screaming in wordless rage.

"Hold that thought, this one's not done yet." Robin said, as King Snake snatched up the nearest vial of venom he could and cocked his arm back, hurling it at the pair…

As a Birdarang crashed into it, and the venom sprayed out as the vial shattered….directly into King Snake's eyes.

"GRAYYYYYYYAHHHHHHHHHH!!" King Snake howled as he reared back, clawing at his eyes, as the Birdarang flew back in an arc and into Robin's upheld hand.

"Oh say, you can't see." Robin said.

Raven smacked him on the arm.

"Ow, what was that for?" The Teen Wonder complained.

"You deserved that and more for something that bad."

"I think I'm allowed an occasional…"

"DAMN YOU!!" King Snake shrieked…as he swung the laser rifle at the pair, as Robin's eyes widened. Where the HELL had he gotten that? Had he yanked it out of his well toned ass?

Wherever didn't matter, as King Snake opened fire. Raven, on instinct, threw up her hands and blocked the shots with a black shield, but the impact made her recoil back with a cry and slump into Robin's arms.

"RAVEN! Are you okay?"

"So tired…" Raven whispered.

"YOU WILL ALL DIE!" King Snake screamed, as Robin prepared to knock the rifle aside, but King Snake wasn't aiming it any more: he was holding up a small remote he'd gotten from somewhere. "YOU WILL SUFFER FOR YOUR BLASPHEMY! THIS WAS OUR WORLD! IT WAS WITHIN OUR GRASP! YOU WILL ALL BURN!"

And then King Snake pressed the button on the remote, and he abruptly vanished in a swirl of energy.

"Wha…damn. Short range teleporter. He must have warped back up to…" Robin said, looking over at the _Divine Scar_, which was still airborne despite all the damage, though badly listing to one side.

"Robin, are you there! Are we finally getting through?" Savior's voice abruptly crackled from Robin's communicator, and he snatched it up.

"I'm here Savior, what is it?"

"We have a problem. You better get down to the base of the tower!"

* * *

It did not take Robin long to find his team: he just looked over each roof edge until he saw them and then used his grapple to rappel down to them, carrying Raven in the other arm so she could rest. He dropped down next to the group, who were all clustered around something.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"This." Scalpel said grimly, as the group parted.

And revealing the square shaped object pressed against the base of their tower, attached firmly to an unaltered part of the armor plate. It was about the size of a very large briefcase and twice as thick, covered in some kind of black plastic that was hooked up to several smaller devices that were also attached to the wall.

Robin didn't need the timer ticking down on it to tell what it was: a bomb. King Snake's earlier preparation had proven to be needed after all, and he'd activated the device just before he'd teleported away.

"How big?" Robin said, heading over to Cyborg, who was crouched in front of it: the Titans who had discovered the bomb beforehand had been trying to work out the best way to deactivate it, but hadn't stumbled across a solution before the timer had suddenly activated and begin to tick down: it had started at two minutes, and was just entering the 1:30's.

"My scans reveal roughly thirty pounds of the new kind of plastic explosive, XT-7. That much would blow the whole island off the map." Cyborg said grimly.

"Can you disarm it?"

"With this setup? Maybe in six hours. Not in 90 seconds." Cyborg replied.

"I still say we should cut the wires and hurl it!" Terra said.

"It WON'T work Terra. With the setup this has, the best wire cutting solution will STILL trigger one of the traps, and that trap will make the timer will go into maximum overdrive in counting speed: you'd be able to take two or three steps before it blew."

"Then let's run away!" Gauntlet suggested.

"We can't."

"What, why not?"

"Because when this thing activated it turned on a proximity sensor. We'd get fifteen feet away at most."

"Uh…Raven, of course! Warp it into the 8th dimension or something!" Terra said.

"…I can't…"

"WHAT? WHY NOT?"

"Maybe because she just completely exhausted herself battling back a chaos god, blondie." Savior snapped.

"He's right…have virtually no power left…nowhere near enough for such a transport…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…"

* * *

King Snake staggered across his throne room, not knowing where his servants were and not caring. He'd had the world in his grasp and the Titans had taken it away. He was going to destroy them, burn their city to the ground and poison the earth. He'd make their name a curse word before he was done.

King Snake sat down in his throne, his newly-blinded again eyes stabbing with pain as he tried to locate the right keys, but he managed to find them, pressing them to activate the stereo voice and the vocal command aspect of his throne.

"Computer, begin ascent!"

"_Divine Scar_ suffering heavy damage. Loss of complete function estimated in…"

"I DON'T CARE! If it makes this whole ship fall apart, do it anyway! Go to higher altitude and commence full press bombardment with any and all weapons remaining! TURN THAT CITY INTO A CHARNEL PIT!"

* * *

"Uh guys…I hate to once again give even more bad news, but the big ship is not longer listing and falling, it's straightening and rising. Oh, and going backwards. As if to say, change direction and fly towards our city, maybe." Gauntlet said.

"WHAT? After all the things we threw at that ship it can still fly?" Beast Boy complained.

"More pressing issue Garfield." Robin said, kneeling down with Cyborg.

"Yeah I know, the bomb. Ugh, bombs. Why does it ALWAYS have to be bombs?" Beast Boy lamented. The timer was down to less then a minute.

"Can you warp it ANYWHERE, Raven?" Morgue asked.

"I could try but…" Raven coughed. "My power's so low. It might fail, it might only go a few feet, I might do it too slowly and get caught in the explosion…it would be a gamble…"

"Okay, okay. There are no problems, only solutions. All right we can't feasibly disarm it we can't escape from it teleporting is fraught with great problems and we are running out of time…THAT'S IT! Cyborg, jam the timer!" Robin said.

"What?"

"Jam it, like you did the microwave! That will buy us some time, and hopefully let us actually get rid of the bomb!"

"How?"

"I have a plan! Just do it!"

"Robin that was a cheap cooking device, not a highly sophisticated explosive setup! Trying might set the bomb off anyway, and even if it works, it's a completely different timer, it'll probably last seconds at best…"

"That's all we need. Get ready team. The kite's flying and the storm's rising." Robin said.

"Oh man, I really wish I was at a barbecue…" Cyborg said, as he extended a long needle like probe from his primary finger.

The Titans took what might be their last breath…

* * *

"Disruptive field offline. Do you…"

"NO! COMMENCE BOMBARDMENT!" King Snake snarled.

"Acknowledged. All remaining weapons systems armed and targeted. Bombardment of target begins in ten seconds."

"Yesssssssss…" King Snake hissed, as he stood up. "You believe you've won, Robin? You think you have bested me? It is I who have bested you! I have destroyed everything you worked so hard to build, and now I will annihilate all that you tried to protect! I need no god of destruction! I AM A GOD OF DESTRUCTION! NOW WILL COME YOUR RECKONING…!"

King Snake, in all senses, never saw it coming.

As the air fogged into a dark mist before him, and a white line of energy flew out and smashed into King Snake's face, knocking the madman sprawling back into his throne.

As Savior jumped out of the teleportation portal Raven had nearly killed herself to make and slammed King Snake's bomb into his lap, Raven having managed one brief, three second warp by focusing all her power on a beacon.

The R symbol still on King Snake's lap.

"Don't tread on me." Savior hissed, and then he was gone, back into the portal a moment before it faded away.

As King Snake turned blind, uncomprehending eyes on the bomb in his lap, as the jamming faded and the remaining 34 seconds, as predicted, blurred down to zero immediately.

The last thing King Snake heard sounded remarkably like thunder.

* * *

The explosion blew through the top and bottom of the entire back half and remaining crest of the _Divine Scar,_ and a secondary series of explosions blew through the forward part, and the giant skyship fell to Earth, new explosions blasting through every second even as it crashed into the cold, uncaring sea.

The Titans watched it fall in the distance, viewing the blast and descent from the roof of their Tower, looking on as Kobra's insane goal to destroy the world went up in flames like so many others.

Not all revolutions succeeded.

Giant waves began to surge towards the T-Tower and Jump City behind it...but they didn't get far, as Cyborg opened his arm and pressed a few buttons...as buried in the bay floor, various sonic devices activated and began sending out precisely calculated counter-force waves. Within seconds the potential tsumanis had been neutralized.

"Knew installing those things would come in handy one day." Cyborg said.

Robin inhaled, and then let out a long breath. It was done.

"I dunno, man, I still care for more traditional fireworks." Gauntlet said. Savior glanced over at him, but said nothing, turning his gaze back on the flaming wreckage.

"We'll probably have to pull a lot of Kobra troops out of the water and such." Savior commented.

"The scrambling field they threw up is gone, we've got help coming. A lot of it. Let them do it." Robin said, and sighed.

Starfire's arms suddenly crossed around Robin from behind, as she put her head on his shoulder.

"Happy Not-Birthday, Robin!"

"Not-Birthday?" Terra asked.

"Yes, after the immense amounts of pain and suffering this day has produced, I am very glad it is NOT Robin's birthday!"

"Just this country's." Robin said, and then sighed.

"What's wrong Tim? We won, we're all alive, we came back from the brink again, our legend grows. No need to be down." Cyborg said.

Robin sighed again, and looked over at Savior, standing solemnly with Raven, the two watching the _Divine Scar_ burn. Knowing precisely why the white-haired teen had seized the bomb from him and dove into Raven's portal when Robin had been going to.

Because to get rid of the bomb, Robin would have had to take at least one life, and who knew how many more, in order to save the lives of his friends. Even if they were the lives of a terrorist organization who had tried to kill them all, that kind of action was the type to haunt you at night.

The team knew that about him.

And so Savior took it for him, believing he could handle it better.

And Robin, as he looked at him, really had no idea if that spoke of Savior's failings or his own. He sighed again. Even in victory, there were so many questions. So many problems to face the next day.

Robin wondered how the Washingtons and the Lincolns had handled it.

"I was just thinking…yeah, the U.S was born on this day. It was founded on the highest and most noble principles. And yet, in our short history, for all our success…I really wonder how much of it came from that ideology…and how much came from the failure to stick to it…and of the willingness to fail." Robin said. "It was obvious here, but elsewhere…so dark, so murky…so inevitable."

"Maybe." Cyborg said. "I like to think of it as a country where a white guy, a white girl, a black metal guy, a green guy, an orange girl, a pale girl, a REALLY white guy, an even WHITER guy, a gray guy, and a girl with back can all team up, save the world, and still be able to get up the next morning to do it again."

"It's a maddening place, shot through with corruption and ignorance…but as much as they may drag it down at times, it hasn't yet stayed down. Considering the alternatives…" Scalpel said, and shrugged, his arms wrapped around Sophie's shoulders, her mask down now, as she shrugged herself and indicated her position.

"And hey man…all we can do is the best we can. History is the only judge." Beast Boy said.

"A blameless life is not the whole of virtue." Savior said.

Robin thought it over, looking at his team, and he nodded.

"I guess so."

"It's not the best country, the most fair country, or the most pure country…but it's ours. We decide where it goes, as best we can." Cyborg said.

_(music starts up)_

"…hmmmmm." Robin said, as the flames in the distance traced the features across his face.

As brilliant lights began flashing around Titan Island: the Justice League was finally coming to help.

"Land of the free." Cyborg concluded.

"Home of the brave." Robin replied, and turned to look at the fire again.

_Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,__  
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,__  
Dream of battled fields no more,__  
Days of danger, nights of waking._

(camera begins panning away from the Titans, going into a further and further distance shot)

_Hail to the chief, who in triumph advances,  
__Honored and bless'd be the evergreen pine!__  
Long may the tree in his banner that glances,__  
Flourish, the shelter and grace of our line.__  
Heav'n send it happy dew,__  
Earth lend it sap anew,  
__Gaily to bourgeon and broadly to grow;__  
While ev'ry highland glen,__  
__"Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! i-e-roe!"_

(roll credits, over pictures of the Titans)

_Ours is no sapling, chance-sown by the fountain,__  
Blooming at Beltane, in winter to fade;__  
When the whirlwind has stripp'd ev'ry leaf on the mountain,__  
The more shall Clan Alpine exult in her shade.__  
Moor'd in the lifted rock,__  
Proof to the tempest shock,__  
Firmer he roots him, the ruder it blow;  
__Menteith and Breadalbane, then,__  
Echo his praise again,  
__"Roderigh Vich alpine dhu, ho! i-e-roe!"_

_Row, vassals, row for the pride of the Highlands!  
__Stretch to your oars for the evergreen pine!__  
Oh, that the rosebud that graces yon islands,__  
Were wreath'd in a garland around him to twine!__  
O, that some seedling gem,  
__Worthy such noble stem,__  
Honor'd and bless'd in their shadow might grow!__  
Loud should Clan Alpine then,  
__Ring from her deepmost glen,__  
"Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu, ho! i-e-roe!"_

**_THE END_**

* * *

_**Dedicated to the opening of the G.I Joe Movie.**_

_**Yo Joe.**_


End file.
